One Love Only
by Groundswell
Summary: James and Lily's best friends gets sick and tired of their constantly fighting over the summer so they decide to force a truce upon them and link them together by their wrists. James and Lily can first be seperated when they learn how to get along.
1. The Awakening

Disclaimer: I own nothing except Joey, but also she has been inspired by the marvellous work of JKR! Wow.

1 – The awakening

"_I would never in a million years go out with you! Not even if I was pai__d to do it! Can't you just get that into you big fat head!?"_

James Potter woke up with a start and sat up in his bed. He had just had a dream. Well, dream was not the right word, but he had just dreamed about his last day of the 6th year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He had asked Lily Evans to go out with him and that was what he had gotten in response. It was not because he liked that she yelled at him, but he just liked her so much and had no idea how to make her go out with him but keep asking her.

James lay for a couple of minutes and kept thinking at Lily before he got up from his bed and over to a mirror. A 17 year old boy with warm hazel eyes looked back at him. His pitch-black hair stuck out in all directions and looked like a bird's nest on top of his head. He shook his head and it fell down a down. He looked out of the window. It couldn't be over midday yet. Across his window he could see a young girl cleaning up her room.

It was Joey, one of James's best friends. They had known each other since they both were four. They had both attended to Hogwarts when they turned 11. Before then, James had found out that Joey, her father and two brothers could perform magic just like his parents. Joey had very short blonde hair and sky-blue eyes; she was a bit shorter than James but not much. If James hadn't considered Joey as a sister, a good friend from childhood and therefore a girl he had nothing but friendly feelings for, she would be a girl he would like to date.

Yet, she was nothing compared to Lily. Lily had thick, shiny red hair that fell gently around her shoulders and bright green eyes that shined like green emeralds. She was almost a head lower than James (last time he saw her) and had a perfect body which many boys at Hogwarts admired and girls envied. She was perfect according to James. He pictured Lily in his eyes; she was wearing that little black skirt he loved so much and her arms were around his own neck and-

"Stop it!" James muttered to himself.

He had no idea how, but every time he thought of something that had nothing to do with Lily, his thoughts always ended up with her.

"What's that noise for?" a voice asked from the other bed.

James looked over at his best friend, Sirius, also known among friends as Padfoot, who had been sleeping until now. Sirius had dark hair just like James, but his was sleeker then James's and not as messy. They were like brothers to each other, and were the best pranksters that had ever attended Hogwarts. They spend at least half of their spare time at detention, and the other half on the Quidditch pitch. The fact that this meant they had no time left for homework didn't concern them at all. They did fine without it. Along with Sirius, James had two other very good friends. Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. Remus was called Moony and was a normal sized boy with light brown hair and brown eyes. Once a month he would lose a bit weight and look more tired and in the night he would seem a bit more hairy, as James said when other people where near them. He was the responsible one in the group (if you could call any of them responsible). Then there was Peter; he was called Wormtail. He was little and a bit chubby. He had dirty blonde hair and small eyes. He was quite and more a 'watcher' than James, Sirius and Remus. The four boys combined were called the Marauders and was known for their pranks and popularity at Hogwarts.

"I thought it was time for you to get up." James said after some time to Sirius.

He walked slowly over to Sirius's bed and pushed him out of it. He hit the floor with a loud bump.

"OUCH!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Now, get up!" James grinned.

Sirius slowly got up and the two boys ate the first meal of the day. After eating, they went out to the back yard and began the play with a red ball. James had bought it in a shop in Diagon Alley a year back, and the ball was not all controllable.

They had a lot of fun until Sirius kicked to the ball a little too hard and James did not stop it. The ball flew into the garden that belonged to Joey and her family, and a girl's shriek was heard. James and Sirius looked at each other with big eyes and James quickly crawled over the hedge, and Sirius walked through the little gate, and they found a red haired girl lying on the ground. Her hair was in two long plaits and her eyes were closed, but James recognised who she was nevertheless.

"Please tell me that, that's not Lily Evans," he groaned to Sirius.

"That hair and that body are not to be mistaken," Sirius said and looked Lily up and down.

"Padfoot!" James said sharply and placed his elbow between Sirius's ribs.

"Ouch! ..." Sirius asked and rubbed his ribs. "But what's she doing here?"

James had a hunch. Lily was Joey's best friend and had been since they started at Hogwarts. What James found strange was that Lily had always accepted that he and Joey were as good friends as they were. She had never complained when Joey spend time with James and left her alone with some of the other girls. Now she was obvious spending the summer with Joey.

"I think I know…"

In the same second Joey came out to the garden from the house. When she saw Lily lying on the ground she dropped a jug of lemonade from her hands and ran over to Lily.

"Merlin! What have you done to her?"

"Well…" James began. "We were playing with a ball and Sirius kicked it over the hedge and we think it hit her because we heard a girl scream."

"You two just can't stay away from trouble, can you?" Joey asked and looked around. "Now, where did I put my wand?"

She found it and pointed at Lily while muttering something. After some seconds Lily blinked a couple of times and slowly sat up with her one hand placed on the side of her head.

"What a headache!" she mumbled and looked at Joey. "What happened?"

"You better ask them," Joey said and pointed at James and Sirius.

Lily looked at James and Sirius. As her gaze fell on James she fell backwards to the ground again. "I think I'm still dreaming. I thought I just saw Potter and Black in your back yard."

"Not dreaming, Lily," Joey said, grabbing Lily's hand and pulled her up again.

"What are they doing here?" Lily asked Joey, pretending they weren't there, or just ignoring them.

"Ask them."

"Please don't make me talk to that," she said, obviously referring to James.

"Then I'll do it," Joey said and looked at James. "James, Lily would like to know what you are doing here," she continued before Lily could stop her.

James showed the white of his eyes and sighed. "Sirius and I played with a ball and we kicked it over the hedge and it hit Lily. And that is why she's lying on the ground now," James said to Joey.

"You WHAT?" Lily yelled, suddenly talking directly to James.

"Well, we didn't do it on purpose," James explained quickly.

"I mean, how could you do that? Joey, please tell me you do _not_ live next-door to that."

"Lily, you know that. I told you once in second year."

Lily was quite for some time. "That's… That's right. I had totally forgotten."

"Evans, we're really sorry we hit you…" James said to Lily.

Lily looked from Joey to James. "Hmph!" she just uttered before she got up and stormed inside.

"I'll go talk to her," Joey said and got up. "See you around."

"Should we go back?" Sirius asked.

James shrugged. "Yeah. Perhaps that would be a good idea," he said and picked up the ball.

When they entered the garden again Karen Potter stood and looked at them with her arms crossed.

"What?" James asked as he saw the look at his mother's face.

"You got into trouble, didn't you?" she just asked.

"What makes you think that?" Sirius grinned.

"I heard someone yell from in there."

James looked at Sirius and shook his head.

"It was nothing," he said.

"I hope not. Lise has asked us to dinner tonight, and it would be sad to start with you two go over at apologize for something."

"But we didn't do anything," James said. "And you're not serous about the dinner, are you?"

"Yes I am and you're definitely going." – Sirius groaned silently – "Lise also told me Josephina has a friend over. You better be nice to her too."

"If she's nice to us," James mumbled and Sirius made a snort.

Karen looked at them for some time. "Now go inside and wash your hands. And you better be down in the kitchen at 6 when we have to be over there."

"Yes, Mum," James muttered and slowly walked inside the house with Sirius behind him.

As soon the boys were inside they ran upstairs to wash their hands.

"Does she want a war to break out at the table tonight?" Sirius asked as soon they were at the bathroom.

"I don't know… perhaps," James said and shrugged. "Just keep me away from Evans, otherwise I'll ask her out at least ten times during dinner."

Sirius grinned. "Sure, mate."

James and Sirius spend the rest of the day in the pool where they played and had loads of fun. None of them heard or saw anything of the girls.

"Do you think that's a good sign or a bad sign that we haven't seen them?" Sirius asked James.

James looked towards the hedge. "I don't know. I thought girls loved spending time outside when the weather is like this."

"So did I."

"You don't think there's anything wrong with Lily, do you?" James asked, a bit anxious.

Sirius pulled himself out of the pool and sat at a chair instead. James went up after him.

"Naah. The ball is not that hard. Is it?" Sirius asked back.

"Nope. They're probably just gone to the beach or something."

"We'll see them tonight."

James nodded and lay down on the lawn.

Ten minutes to six that evening James walked out from the bathroom, pulling a white shirt over his head. He was pretty nervous about how he would act towards Lily that night. The boys had planned something Sirius could say if James started to annoy Lily.

When James entered his room Sirius was just pulling a red shirt over his head.

"Ready to help me tonight?" James asked.

Sirius nodded. "Sure. Just try to behave yourself. Remember your mother and father will be there."

"That's also one of the things that concern me," James said and let his hand run thought his hair.

He was nervous and he was pretty sure it could be seen.

He and Sirius made the way down to the kitchen ten minutes later, ready to go. His parents stood and waited for them.

"Ready boys?" James's father, Evan, asked them.

James nodded, but just as they had gotten out of the door he suddenly thought that his shirt was not good enough.

"Where're you going?" His dad asked when he stopped.

"Finding another shirt," James called as he ran up to his room.

There he found a dark green shirt instead of the white one. He pulled the white one off and put the green one on. He looked out of the window once more and saw the back of Joey walk out of the room. He took a last look at himself in the mirror, and when he thought he looked reasonable he walked downstairs. Outside the air was warm and the sky was still light blue, but darkness was lowering down around him as they walked across the garden. He stopped in front of small gate into the Sands' garden. He took a deep breath and then opened the gate, not knowing that the evening would be a lot more different than he ever would have imagined.

Please tell me what you think :)


	2. The Magical Bond

Unluckily I own nothing…

2 – The Magical Bond

The first thing James saw as he turned the corner was Lily. She was wearing a dark green strapless top and the black skirt that went down to a little above her knees; it was the one James had pictured her in the same morning. She was wearing black sandals and James noticed that her legs were a bit tanned. She had a loose ponytail and only a few locks and here fringe were down. James looked at her, stunned, until Sirius came over to him and gave him an elbow in the ribs.

"What?" he asked, annoyed.

"You're staring at Evans."

"Yeah! Look at her and guess why!"

Sirius looked at Lily. "Yea, yea. Come and sit down with the rest of us."

James followed Sirius over to the table and sat down beside him. To his luck, if not bad luck, the only two seats that were left were across Lily and Joey. Sirius sat across Joey, and James had to sit at the table's end across Lily.

"Hey, Evans," James said and smiled to her. "You look great tonight!"

Lily just sent him an annoyed look back. "Shut it, Potter."

James looked at Sirius who already was talking to Joey. He smiled flirtatiously at Joey and James sighed. Joey was one of the only girls at Hogwarts that Sirius hadn't yet kissed, and James would rather it stayed that way.

But at the end of the dinner they were sending small notes to each other. James guessed it was because they didn't want him and Lily to hear what they were talking about. Lily had still not talked to James, and James tried desperately to find something to talk to her about.

"So… Looking forward to begin at Hogwarts again?" he asked slowly.

Lily looked up at him, with a gaze James could not read. "Before today I didn't because I had to see you again. But now that it has already happened I'm looking forward to see you less again."

James' smile dropped a bit. "Thank you."

Suddenly Sirius got up and left the table with Joey. James sighed and leaned back in the chair. Now Sirius was going to make out with Joey, and James would not see him the next hour or so. He decided to try to start a conversation with Lily again.

"For how long will you stay here?" he asked, smiling slightly to her.

Lily looked away from the horizon to James. Again he could not read her gaze. "Until school begins again. So you have a whole month to annoy me."

"You know… it's never on purpose I'm annoying you."

Lily snorted. "Keep saying that and one day maybe you'll stop then!"

"I'm serious! It' just… You make me nervous."

She snorted again. "Please drop the act, Potter. I can't stand it any more."

"It's no act. I just… please go out with me?" The last thing just slipped away from James and he realised a second after that he should have kept shut.

"No, I will not go out with you!" Lily said; her voice had risen a little bit.

Suddenly she got up from her chair and walked down across the lawn to the end of the garden where she stopped and looked into the pool. James noticed his and Joey's parents were looking at him and sent them an apologetic smile before he got up and walked over to Lily. He stopped when he was standing next to her.

"Can't you just give me five minutes of peace or do you have to torture me all the time?" she hissed.

James grinned. "You're very stubborn, you know that right?"

"I've been told," she said shortly. "Will you now please go away? I'm afraid I might be infected by the ego-virus you apparently can't get out of your body."

"You can say what you want, but I've figured you out…"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You like me," James said very confident.

"Say that again," Lily said between her teeth and drew her wand. "- and you die. You're the most insensitive, rude, impersonal and thoughtless person I know. I could never like you."

James turned towards Lily and bent a little down so he was mouth to ear with her.

"Face it Evans… You want me just as badly as I want you," he whispered in her ear, smiling.

He leaned a bit back and saw how Lily studied him for less than a second, and then he felt how her hand made contact with his cheek. It hurt.

"Don't you ever talk to me like that again, Potter! Ever! Just because someone has given you the impression; you're NOT God's gift to women, or most importantly; me!" she hissed and turned around and stormed out of the garden. In the same second Joey and Sirius came back.

"What happened?" Joey asked.

"Guess twice," James just said.

"I'll go talk to her," Joey said and sent Sirius a glance before she turned and walked after Lily.

Sirius walked over next to James and sighed. "You just had to ask her, right?"

"Yeah," James said and nodded. "Because you weren't here to help me. You were making out with Joey or something inside the house."

"Actually no. We just talked a bit."

"You? Talking? It must be a joke."

"It's not. Come let's take a walk."

James slowly turned and followed Sirius out from the garden. When they were out in the street Sirius headed towards the little park that was in the town and James just followed.

"So you and Joey really weren't doing anything?" James asked Sirius.

Sirius put the hands in his pockets and looked up into the sky. "Nope. You know we could never like each other like that. We're like fire and water, or what to say…"

James nodded slowly. "Yeah, that's right…"

They turned the corner into the park and slowly walked through the gates. James noticed that Sirius pulled his wand out of the pocket.

"What are you going to do with that one?" he asked.

"Just if something turns up," Sirius said shortly.

James shrugged and moved on. Suddenly he heard voices around a bush. He recognized the one as Lily's. "…say that I just should get it over and go out with him?" she said.

"Yeah or something like that…" Joey said hesitating.

Suddenly Lily shrieked and something fell to the ground.

"Padfoot!" James whispered. "Someone attacked Lily I think!"

He started to run, but fell instead. He looked down and his legs were like glued together. He looked up at Sirius who stood with his wand pointing at him.

"What are you doing?!" James asked furious.

"Something I should have done a looong time ago…" Sirius said slowly.

He lifted James from the ground and carried him around the bush. James saw Lily sit on a bench with arms and legs glued into her body. Sirius put him down next to Lily and stood up next to Joey.

"What is this?" Lily asked furious.

"Shh!" Sirius hushed while raising his finger to his lips. "You don't always have to know everything. It's healthy for you."

Lily looked evilly at Sirius, and James was sure she tried to come up with something to say or a way to kill him later.

"Look guys…" Joey begun before Lily found something to say.

"Joey and I are sick and tiered of you two fighting all the time…" Sirius continued.

"And we know that deep inside you are too. Therefore…"

"We came up with this plan..."

"That hopefully will help you…"

"Will you, Joey?"

"Sure, Sirius," Joey said and pointed her wand at the space between James and Lily. "Anexus Ammiticia!"

James felt something warm around his wrist and when he looked down again, his and Lily's hands both had a red glowing ring around their wrists and they were connected with a red glowing chain which was about two inches long. Sirius lifted the gluing jinx and James felt he could move again.

"What is this?" James asked and lifted his left hand and pointed at it with his right hand. Lily's hand flew up along with his one.

"It's a magical bond!" Joey grinned.

"What?" Lily asked this time. "You're binding me to that jerk?"

"Thanks," James said; Lily ignored him.

"We're binding you both to each other. So you can learn to tolerate each other." Sirius explained.

"Undo it," Lily just said calm, but lost control the second after. "UNDO IT NOW!"

Joey took a step backwards. "We can't," she said in a small voice; obviously afraid of Lily.

"CAN'T?"

"No. It's binding and won't go away before you two have solved your problems and get along."

James had no idea what to say, but apparently Lily had. "You can't do that! What the hell were you thinking?! Binding me to the biggest idiot in the world! Now I'm stuck with a pathetic looser all 24 hours of the day and I-" Lily stopped in the middle of sentence and silence fell over them.

"She got lost of words," Joey said stunned. "She got lost of words… I didn't think that would ever happen…But it did. Wow. What did you want to say, Lily?"

Lily looked at Joey and Sirius for some time with open mouth, and James looked at Lily, wanting to know what she wanted to say.

"How am I going to sleep?" she asked slowly and looked blank at Joey.

Sirius laughed. "Your problem. Not ours. Have a great night."

And with those words he and Joey walked away, leaving Lily and James behind at the bench. James didn't know what to say and he had no idea what to feel.

"So erm… Want to go back?" he asked after some time.

"Why can you just take it that calm?" Lily asked him.

"You heard them. There's nothing we can do beside get along. We might just try it."

Lily snorted. "The last thing I would ever do in this world is to get along with you. See you!"

She got up and tried to walk away but the chain pulled her back and she fell right back, down to James's lap.

"I knew you would come around sooner or later," James joked and grinned.

"Shut it, Potter," Lily said and got up. "Now get up and come home."

"Naah… Changed my mind. I think I'll stay here a bit longer," James said and put his hands behind his head which resulted in Lily getting pulled back at the bench next to James.

"You-" Lily begun but ran out of words for the second time that day.

She got up and started to pull in the chain to make James get up, but he didn't move. She had grabbed around the chain with both of her hands and kept pulling in it. James just grinned at her.

"Relax, Evans! We have all night."

Suddenly Lily drew her wand and pointed it at James. "It's not your good luck that I'm left-handed and that's the one that's free," she hissed. "Get up or I'll curse you to Saturn and back again!"

James sighed. "Fine. Just try to be a bit less bossy!"

Lily growled. She swished her wand a few times at the chain, but nothing happened and she let out an outburst of anger before they begun to move down the path James and Sirius had come from.

They walked back towards the houses in silence, Lily kicking to every possible thing on her way to get some frustration out. When they stood outside the two houses James stopped while Lily continued. Once more that evening she was pulled violently back into James.

"What?" she asked annoyed and pushed herself away from James.

"What are we going to do with the sleeping?" he asked a bit awkward.

Lily looked stunned up at the two houses. "I don't know."

"Look…" James begun, still a bit awkward. "My parents are going to China first in the morning. Perhaps we should sleep at my place…"

Lily nodded slowly. "Let's get going," she said and they began going up the lawn towards the Potter's front door.

She had to pull James a couple of times because he walked too slowly. James opened the door and stepped inside with Lily right behind him. He lit the hall and Lily gasped.

"It's beautiful," she said.

"I'll give you a tour in the morning. Come on." James said and begun to walk up the stairs and Lily just followed.

When they made his door he stopped before opening it. "This is it," he mumbled to himself.

"This is what?" Lily asked.

"I just had never thought I should show you my room in this way. I had hoped it to be in a more romantic way."

First Lily didn't react at it but shortly after she showed the white of her eyes and pushed the door open. She pulled James with her by the chain. Inside the room Sirius sat at a chair, playing with the red ball once more.

"Padfoot, get out," James said annoyed.

"What? I always sleep in here."

"Yeah, but because of your own stupidity we have a girl among us and it's enough that she has to sleep in the same bed as me. You can use the guest's room."

"Fine," Sirius just said and grabbed his clothes and walked out.

As the door closed Lily turned to James. "Thanks for that."

James shook his head. "Neither of us asked for this so I can only try to make you as comfortable as possible."

Lily looked at him, not having an answer so instead she sighed and looked at the small bed. "What are we going to do?"

James knew what she meant so he drew his wand and pointed it at the two beds. He mumbled a few words and they grew together at the wall.

"Sorry. There's no more room. Is that okay with you?"

Lily nodded. "As good as it can be with these circumstances," she said and looked at the bed and then out of the window. "Umm… Potter… I-"

"Just spit it out." James said. "I really want to sleep now."

"Well… I only brought the nightdress I uses to sleep in and I'm not… well, let's just say that I'm not comfortable with it at the moment."

James just grinned. "I totally understand," he said and walked over to the closet.

He forgot he was linked to Lily and she fell over.

"Sorry," he said and helped her up.

"Hmph!"

James opened the closet and looked for something almost with his entire body inside it. Lily tried to look over his shoulder, but couldn't see anything.

"Here," James suddenly said and pulled an orange t-shirt out with the inscription 'The CANNONS!' in black letters over the chest part of it. After that Lily got a pair of black shorts. "Is that okay?" James asked her, looking at her with raised eyebrows.

Lily nodded. "Err… Would you like to turn around while I'm dressing into it?"

"Sure," James said and shrugged before turning around.

"You look, you die," Lily said shortly.

"Fine." He looked out of the window and felt how his arm moved up and down as Lily undressed and after that redressed.

"Done," Lily said and James turned around.

Lily really looked cute in the t-shirt which was all too big for her and went almost down to her knees. But suddenly James thought of something.

"How did you get your right arm through?"

Lily looked at the chain. "I don't know. It sort of went through the t-shirt."

"Okay… Umm…" James said and scratched himself in the neck. "Normally I just sleep in my boxers, but what do you want me to do?"

Lily looked at him a few seconds. "Just put on some other shorts. That's okay."

"Okay. Then turn around."

Lily did as James told her to and James quickly pulled the shirt and pants of and some shorts on instead.

He kicked his pants and shirt away and said, "Done! Ready to sleep then?"

Lily turned around like wanting to say something but did not dare to say it. "Actually… I-I have to pee."

James went pale. "What?"

"I have to pee," Lily repeated and blushed.

"How… Howarewegoingtodothat?" James asked were quickly.

Lily looked at him for some seconds, trying to understand what he had just said. "I'm not sure. But I can do this spell which creates a barrier between us for about a minute."

"You have to do that."

Lily nodded. "Show me the way."

James walked out of the door and across the hall. "Here. So I have to go with inside?"

"Trust me. It's worst for me. And I'll kick your ass if you just try to look."

"Oho! Trust me. I won't!"

They went inside and James turned around as they made the toilet. Lily muttered the spell and James could sense the barrier, but didn't look. After a little minute he could hear the toilet flush and turned around again. Lily dragged James over to the sink and washed her hands just as the barrier disappeared. They both brushed their teeth and went back to the room.

"Ready to sleep now?" Lily asked.

"Sure," James said and shrugged.

They walked over to the bed and sat down.

"You can take Sirius's blanket," James said and nodded at the white blanket next to the bed.

"Thanks," Lily said and grabbed it.

She lay down on the left side of the bed and made space to James. James sat up and looked at her for a bit longer.

'What a night it'll be,' he told himself and lay down next to Lily.

"Night," he said.

"Night. And don't you dare try something during the night!"

"It's not really my style."

"Better not be."


	3. A New Day and a New Start

Disclaimer: James; not mine. Lily; not mine. Magic world; not mine. Joey; in fact mine. Sirius; wishful thinking. You get it.

3 – A new day and a new start

James woke up the next morning as rays of sunlight hit his face. He moved a bit and tried to stretch his hands above his head, but his left arm was stuck. He looked down and saw some red hair on his chest, and a hand on his shoulder. His right arm had been around the person in his bed and his left was linked to another hand. They both lay under his blanket and Sirius' was pushed down to the floor.

He suddenly remembered last night and how Sirius and Joey had used that spell on them. He and Lily had slept in the same bed, and she was now lying almost on top of him. As he moved a bit more, Lily moved too. She was awake! She slowly lifted her head and looked upwards with sleepy – but beautiful – eyes. As she did that her and James's face was only inches away. They had eye contact for a couple of seconds before Lily's eyes widened.

And suddenly she began to scream, very loud and shrill. And without knowing why James started to roar with a deeper tone too.

Lily tried to jump out of the left side of the bed and James jumped out the opposite side. They both tried to ran away, but the chain reacted like a big elastic band, and pulled them both back and into each other. They both fell down on the bed, James on top of Lily.

"I'm so sorry!" James said at once.

"Get – Off – Me – Potter!" Lily hissed, pushing James off her. James rolled down next to her, a little out of breath because of the screaming. "I should have known you would try something like that!" Lily said.

"Wha-? I didn't force you to lie on top of me while we were sleeping!"

"Right!"

"Fine! Just be stubborn as you use to. I don't care. You're stuck to me and can't do anything about it!"

Lily didn't say anything, but tried to cross her arms, but since her one hand was stuck with James', she couldn't. James suddenly got up and that resulted in Lily fell down to the floor, hanging in her one hand.

"What now?" she asked angrily as she got up.

"I have to take a shower," James said simply.

Lily went pale. "You're what?" she whispered.

"I have to take a shower," he repeated. "I don't know how you'll handle that, but since we're stuck you have to stand outside."

James actually wasn't in the mood for a shower, but did it only to annoy Lily. He knew he was stronger then her and was not as shy as she was. He didn't care if she was there or not, he was ready to take advantage of that.

"Forget it!" Lily said between her teeth.

"Oh, I don't think so!" James said and moved towards the door, grabbing the clothes he wanted to wear on the way.

Lily tried to hold her stand, but since she was much smaller than James and not as strong, she was dragged all the way over the floor. James walked across the hall with his left hand and Lily behind him. As Lily was about to get through the door she grabbed around the doorframe and fought against James.

James stopped and sighed. "Fine. I'll just undress right here."

Lily made a shriek and let go of the doorframe to put her hands in front of her eyes instead. James grinned at Lily's reaction. "You're such an ass! Have I told you that?!" she raged.

"Loads of times," James said with a smile. "Would you mind looking away now?"

Lily looked away, and James dropped his clothes and went into the shower. The hot water steamed down his body and he actually found it very relaxing. He looked out at Lily stood with the back at him, starring into the wall with her right arm twisted behind.

"Are you enjoying yourself?" James grinned.

"No! And will you please hurry. I don't have all day."

"You can just join me in here," he joked with a smile. He suddenly found it funny to tease Lily, just because he could.

"You're making me sick!"

James pulled his head inside again and put shampoo in his hair. He washed it out with his right hand and let the left arm outside the bath, to make sure Lily wasn't too uncomfortable.

"Okay… I'm done now. Turn around."

"I already have!"

"Okay, fine. Why are you so negative?"

"Why do you think?" Lily sneered.

James stepped out of the bath and dried himself, before dressing. "Don't you want to take a shower?"

"You'll just look!"

"I promise I won't."

Lily was quite for some time. "Fine then. But if you look I'll hex you worse than you can ever imagine!"

James grinned. "All right. I can shave in the meantime. The mirror is next to the shower so I can't see you."

Lily looked at him for some seconds. "Fine. Now turn around and close your eyes while I undress."

James did as he was told. When Lily had entered the shower he put all his attention to the mirror and started shaving. It was a bigger work when he only had his right hand, but he did it and was finished when Lily was finished too.

"I'm coming out now so you have to look away," Lily said.

Some second went and nothing happened. "What's happening, Evans?" James asked.

"I… I didn't bring my clothes from your room," she said a bit embarrassed.

James couldn't hold a snort back.

"It's not funny!"

"Yes it is."

"I'm not going out in the hall like this!" Lily said.

"You don't have to. I have my wand right…" James said and looked for the wand in his pocked with the right hand. "Here!" He pulled the wand up. "Accio Lily's clothes!"

The door sprang open and Lily's skirt and top came in through it. "Thanks," Lily murmured and grabbed the skirt.

"You're welcome," James just said.

Some seconds went before Lily stepped over next to him.

"You can look now," she said.

James opened his eyes and looked at Lily. Her wet hair fell around her head and down her shoulders and small drops of water made their way down it. She looked so natural and beautiful at the same time. James had not realised that he had been staring for several second before Lily pushed slightly to him to get to the mirror. She grabbed a brush and started to brush her hair.

"Your wand?" she asked with her hand stretched out.

"Why?" James asked and held his wand away from her.

"I need to dry my hair."

"I need to dry my hair too."

"No you don't."

"Yes I do."

"Just give it to me!"

"It's not helping to talk like that!"

Lily sighed. "Can I then, PLEASE, borrow your wand?"

James smiled and gave it to her.

Lily started to dry her hair while brushing it and James was staring at her again. She finished and the two of them made the way down to the kitchen. On the way either of them kept pulling in the chain so the other one tripped or just got pulled forward.

James entered the kitchen first and pulled in the chain so Lily bumped into the wall with her right shoulder.

"You're so much going to die for this!" she said between her teeth while rubbing her shoulder.

"Whatever you say," James just said. His parents were just carrying the last suitcases out from another room as the entered. "You're going now?" James asked.

"Yeah," his father answered; his gaze fell on the chain around James and Lily's hands. "What's happened to you two?"

"Sirius," James just said and showed the white of his eyes.

His mother started to laugh and so did his father.

"That's not funny!" James said, getting pretty annoyed at his parents.

"Yes it is," Karen laughed. "It's one of the best ways to make people get together."

James and Lily both blushed and looked down. James was cursing his parents in his mind; they really understood to make people embarrassed.

"You two have fun," Evan said as they started to carry their suitcases out of the kitchen.

"We'll be home in two or three weeks," Karen added.

They both walked out the door, leaving James and Lily back with a very awkward silence. "Wanna get something to eat?" James asked after some time.

"Sure…" Lily said slowly.

"We'll kill Sirius and Joey later for this," he said, referring to the chain around the wrists.

"Sure…"

James dragged Lily over to the fridge looking for something to eat.

"You know, you could just have summoned them," Lily noticed.

"Nah. Then I couldn't drag you around like this."

"You just can't be nice to someone can you?"

James looked at her for some seconds. "You know what?" he asked. "I have tried to be nice to you the last six years, but what have I gotten in response? Hateful glances and mean words. I don't think you can be meaner to me so I can act the way I want as long as you're stuck to me because we won't get away from each other before we talk and act nicely towards each other."

Lily had opened her mouth, ready to say something to James, but no words came past her lips.

"Good! Here," James said and tucked a bottle of milk in Lily's hands. He opened the closet next to the fridge and found some cornflakes before he turned around again. "Come on," he said and pulled Lily after him by the chain.

Lily almost fell over, but quickly got up again.

"You're an ass, did you know that?"

"You've already said that once today."

"That's because I really mean it!"

"Thank you."

"You're not welcome."

James didn't reply, but sat down and ate in silence. When they were finished James heard steps at the stairs. He turned around and saw Sirius come down. He grinned as he saw James and Lily sit across each other with their hands on the table, still with the chain.

"You two have to solve your problems sooner or later," he said and sat down next to James.

"Be careful or I'll kill you," Lily said between her teeth.

"Sure… Well, Joey and I talked about going to the beach today. Wanna come?"

"If you haven't noticed, Black," Lily said deadly. "I have a parasite hanging by my wrist and am not in the mood to go to the beach today."

"I wanna go." James said. Really he wasn't in the mood either, but he just wanted to irritate Lily.

"No you don't!"

"Yes I do."

"Oh, no you don't."

"Oh, yes I do."

Lily leaned back in her chain and crossed her arms. James wasn't ready for this and was pulled into the table with his ribs and his head hit the table.

"OUCH!" he exclaimed and straightened up again. "Please try to control your movements, woman!"

"I do what I want to do!"

"Fine!" James said and got up.

Now it was Lily's turn to fly over the table. She quickly pushed herself off as James began to go out of the kitchen. James walked very quickly and Lily almost had to run after him. Sirius sat back and looked after them, grinning widely. James pushed a door open and walked out in the garden.

"Will you please slow down?!" Lily called.

"No," James just said.

He made the ending of the garden and sat down in the grass. Lily had nothing to do but sit down beside him. As James leaned back with closed eyes Lily found no other thing than do the same. Both of them were silence for a couple of minutes.

"I hate you," Lily suddenly said.

"You've said that before."

"Thought so too. I just can't say anything that make you realise just how much."

"Nope. Because deep inside you don't."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"I will be waiting for you," James said

"Oh, just shut up."

He did not reply. He just sighed and thought for how long this would go on. After a couple of minutes he could feel Lily get up next to her.

"James?" she asked. James was puzzled by why Lily used his first name. He mumbled a yes. "Do you realise that we'll be stuck until we learn to get along?"

"Yeah. I kind of found out last night when Sirius and Joey said so."

"Yes. But do realise how long time that can be. We could be stuck for the rest of our lives!"

James sat up next to Lily. "Look. Not to be mean or anything. But it kind of depends on you. It's not me who hates the person I'm stuck with. It's you."

"We're two people stuck together," Lily raged. "Two people with this problem! How can you say it's only me who needs to accept you?"

"Because, you hate me. I don't hate you."

Lily was quite for some seconds. "Then what are your feelings about me?"

James closed his eyes and leaned back once more with his hands behind his head. He sighed and listened to the birds' tweets for some seconds before answering. "I have told you thousands of times before. You know."

Lily didn't response, but lay down next to James. James could feel that she lay very close to him and he could smell her perfume. Like flowers, but more normal and not too much of it. He opened his eyes and looked at her. She was lying on her right side with her one hand linked to James's over her head and the other one up to her mouth in a thinking way. She looked down in the grass like thinking hard about something. James closed his eyes again and turned his head to the sky.

"Do you love me?" she suddenly asked out of nowhere.

James raised his eyebrows of surprise. "Yes… Why?"

Lily shrugged. "Don't know… just curiosity I guess."

"Um okay." James just said.

"Why?"

"What?"

"Why do you 'love' me? I mean, I'm just some random girl. I'm not smart or pretty or have some great personality. I'm just a regular simple muggleborn girl."

James couldn't hold a smile back. "You can't see it yourself I guess, but to me you're…" he said but stopped. "I can't describe it. You're something more… it's like everything you do make me feel something inside and I get nervous… I look at you and see something I don't see inside of everyone else. You probably don't know you have it, but you do."

James had said all this without looking at Lily and he could feel how her eyes now searched for his to get some contact, but he didn't look up; he suddenly felt a bit embarrassed. At last Lily gave up and looked up at the hedge instead and James dared to look up again.

"That's some beautiful words spoken by you I must say," Lily said slowly.

James blushed a bit. "I'm sorry. But it's just the way I feel."

"Don't be sorry. No one can be responsible for the way they feel."

James sighed, not knowing what Lily wanted this conversation for; she didn't care anyway. They both leant back onto the grass and looked into the sky, thinking. James closed his eyes and sighed, breathing in the warm summer air. Lily seemed to have gone quite next to him. He sat up a bit and watched as Lily picked a blade of grass and cut it into small pieces. She seemed to know he was watching. He closed his eyes and lay back on the grass once again.

Several minutes passed before Lily said something which surprised James.

"I don't hate you."

James opened his eyes slowly and turned his head to look at Lily.

"You don't what?"

"Hate you. I-I don't hate you."

"It seems like you do," James said. He had nothing else to say because he was very surprised by Lily's words.

"Yeah… I mean… sometimes you can be a little too…what to call it? ... Egocentric and stuff like that. But I don't hate you. Those sides of you just annoy me a bit. Well, a lot actually."

James nodded slowly. "I understand."

"You do?" Lily asked surprised.

"Yeah. And if we ever want to have this chain removed, I can see that I have to turn those sides a bit down."

Lily smiled at him. "And I'll try to be a bit more acceptable about you."

"So we're trying to get along?" James asked and smiled.

"I guess we are," Lily said and nodded.

Feedback makes me smile so leave some :P


	4. To The Beach

A/N: I don't think I've had an A/N before now, so here you get one :P read it or not. I guess most people chose not to. I just wasn't you all to know that updates might come quickly now, but that's only because I've already written about fifteen chapters of the story and posted it somewhere else too, someday it might be slower. Okay, I want to say something more, but really can't come up with anything… Um, I might owe my beta, Nadia a great thank you, even though she's not currently aware that I post the story on here. I should tell her. The title of this story comes from the song "One Love Only" by a Danish band called S.o.a.p. You can find it on youtube, and I recomand you all to do it as it's a really amazing song… Okay, that's really all, Did anyone read it all? :P haha

Disclaimer: It's stupid really. I _could _have come up with the great idea of a magical world and a by who lived, but JKR beat me to it. She's laughing in my face right now. Instead I chose to… red the books? Okay, I _gave_ her Happy Potter and the magical world. And I'm… a great, great liar really. You might have noticed by now that I'm not JKR. It's all just wishful thinking.

4 – To the beach

The next morning James had quite a different start to the previous day. He and Lily lay back to back with the linked hands over their heads, and this day not under the same blanket. James turned a bit and saw that Lily was awake. She had not yet noticed that James was awake.

James yawned and stretched, and Lily turned to face him.

"Morning," she said smiling.

"Morning, Evans," James smiled back.

Lily sighed. "You can just call me Lily. We're trying to be friends, remember?"

"Oh yeah. That's right. I had all forgotten."

"You had?"

"Of course I hadn't! You're way too cute!" James grinned at Lily.

Lily started bite her lip like suppressing something, and James noticed and realised what he just had said.

"I'm sorry Lily. It just slipped… I didn't mean it."

Lily stopped biting her lip. "Yes you did. But it's okay. Thanks for apologizing."

James looked at Lily for some seconds. "You're taking it pretty well considered how you use to react."

"I'm trying to accept you better… That's my part of the plan which is about us getting this of, remember?" Lily said slowly and pointed at the chain, sending him a slight scowl.

"Okay… and again, I'm sorry."

Lily nodded, and then smiled. "Let's go out and have some fun!"

James grinned and got up. Half an hour later they entered the kitchen and saw Sirius and Joey eating late breakfast and talking. Joey looked up and smiled at the smiling Lily and yawning James.

"Good morning you two," she said.

Both Lily and James mumbled a 'Good morning' and sat down at the table.

"Wanna go to the beach today?" Sirius asked. "Since you weren't in the mood yesterday."

James looked at Lily who looked down at her bread with jam. "What do you think?" he asked her and shoved her slightly.

She looked up and swallowed. "Sure… When are we going?" she asked and looked at Joey.

"Half an hour?" she asked.

"Yeah. Okay."

"Fine." James said and grabbed some bread.

They all went up to their rooms when finished breakfast to change. James was quick to find his trunks and changed into them while Lily looked away.

Lily had moved her trunk into James room yesterday and quickly found her bikini. As James looked away she changed, but suddenly stopped. James waited a few seconds before asking.

"What's taking you so long?"

"I…I can't tie the… back of my… bikini-top. I need my arm," Lily said while she struggled with it. At last she halfway gave up and sighed.

"Erm… Need help?" James asked hesitating and blushed slightly.

Lily sighed again. "Would you?"

"Sure. Can I turn around now?"

"Yeah…"

James turned and saw Lily with the back at him and one arm holding the bikini top. He quickly grabbed the two strings and tied them together.

"Done!" he said.

"Thanks," Lily said and turned around to face him.

James couldn't help but stare. Lily's bikini was black with red and white flowers. She was not fat, nor too thin, but had perfect curves and her skin was a bit tanned. Lily was still holding her arm over her bikini top like not feeling way too comfortable.

"James!" she said very impatient. "You're staring!"

James shook himself up. "Oh sorry. It's just… you look very-" James stopped himself before fulfilling the sentence, remembering how hard Lily slapped. "Nice," he ended firmly.

Lily looked up at him with raised eyebrows. She didn't look happy.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

"Let's go down," Lily just said and pulled a t-shirt over her head and her skirt from the floor.

James grabbed his t-shirt too and was dragged down the stairs by Lily. "Slow down, please," he sighed.

He wasn't sure if Lily was mad or not, but she didn't reply. As they entered the kitchen Joey and Sirius had got changed and sat down at the table, looking at them.

"Ready to go?" Sirius grinned.

"Yeah… Why are you grinning like that?" James asked Sirius as he kept smiling.

"Nothing." Sirius said and exchanged glances with Joey.

James raised an eyebrow, but none of them said anything.

Lily sighed. "Just leave them. Should we go?"

Sirius and Joey got up and disapparated, James and Lily following shortly after.

Twenty minutes later all four lay on the warm beach. James and Lily in the middle with Joey and Sirius on each side. Sirius had already eyed two girls who lay a little to the right of them and was now flirting a bit with the one of them. She was wearing a pink bikini and had blonde hair. After five minutes James was tired of it and whispered something to Sirius and they both looked at Joey and Lily very mischievously.

Sirius grinned a bit. "Let's do it!"

He slowly got up and walked over to Joey, who like Lily lay, with closed eyes. He and James exchanged a look and at the same time they grabbed one of the girls. James lifted Lily off the towel she lay on and followed Sirius down to the water. Both she and Joey made a little shriek as they were lifted of the ground

"James, put me down!" Lily exclaimed and tried to push herself down from James arms. "James! Now!"

James just grinned. He could hear Joey yell something to Sirius in front of them. As they neared the water Lily tried to get down a little harder.

"Ready to get wet Evans?" He grinned; he used her last name on purpose.

"NO! Sit me down!" Lily shrieked, but couldn't stop laughing. "James, no! The water is cold!"

"You wouldn't know. You haven't been in it."

"Put me down! NOW!"

James grinned as his feet started to get wet and he ran further out in the water. It wasn't very cold. Lily grabbed James around the neck with her free hand as he was about to let go of her.

"No! No! Don't let go. I've changed my mind," she said.

"Too late!" James grinned.

Sirius appeared on James left side and they exchanged glances again and let go of the girls. As James let go of Lily he was almost pulled under himself because of the chain, but he managed to not. Lily and Joey were both all wet and looked very mad.

"You're so gonna die for that!" Lily said simply.

Without warning she reached very quickly for James's one leg and pulled in it. James fell backwards and was all covered with water right away. He arms flew up over his head and Lily was pulled with them. She landed on top of James with her one elbow into his stomach, and he swallowed a lot of water. James sat straight up with Lily on top of him and spat some water out.

"Ugh!" he exclaimed and spat some more. "Ew!"

Lily grinned and removed some wet hair from her face.

"That's not funny."

"Yes it is," Lily said and grinned some more. "That's what you get for throwing me in the water."

"You have some seaweed in your hair," James noticed and pointed.

"There is?"

"Yeah. Right here," James removed it as he said the last and threw it down into the water.

"Thanks," Lily said and let her hand run through his hair, and James was reminded about himself.

James looked at Lily who looked back at him. She smiled slightly at him and he smiled to her, looking her into the eyes. They were sparkling and smiling along with her lips.

Suddenly Lily blushed furiously and looked down before pushing herself off James. James cleared his throat, and removed his eyes from Lily. They sat in the water for a few minutes in silence, watching Joey and Sirius chasing around and tackling and pouring water at each other. James laughed as Joey tripped over a five year old child who started to cry. The child ran over to its mom and Joey ran after Sirius again.

"Should we go back up?" James asked after some time.

Lily shrugged. "Okay…"

They walked a few steps in silence before Lily spoke.

"What do you think Sirius and Joey were talking about before we left?"

James looked down at her "Probably how they're gone link our feet together or something like that."

Lily smiled at him. They walked the rest of the way back in silence and Lily lay down while James sat up and looked around. The two girls, which one of them Sirius had flirted with before, looked at him. That one looked away as James looked back but the other kept looking at James. She was actually pretty. She had long brown hair and very dark brown eyes. She was tanned and wore a turquoise bikini. She smiled at James, so James smiled back with one of his charming smiles before lying down next to Lily.

He must have fallen asleep because he woke up as someone sat down next to him.

"Finish bathing, Padfoo-" he said, but stopped as he saw it wasn't Sirius. "Oh, hi!"

It was the tanned girl.

"Hi," The girl smiled. "My name is Ianna."

"James," James said and shook the Ianna's hand. "How can I help you?"

Ianna blushed slightly. "Well… My friend over there was just wondering… You're friend, him with the lovely grey eyes and black hair, is he single?"

James couldn't hold a smile back. "Sirius is always single. Don't count on a relationship with him."

Ianna smiled. "Okay… We were just wondering if you would like to come with us up to the kiosk and have an ice."

"We would lo-" James stopped as he remembered the chain around his wrist. It would be hard to hide it. And Lily probably even wouldn't go. "I'm sorry. But I… erm… I have diabetes and… I erm… I can't eat ice," he stuttered.

James could see that Ianna knew he was lying.

"Is that your girlfriend?" She asked and pointed at Lily who was sleeping, wearing big sunglasses and a towel over their hands.

James was thinking very hard. "Erm… well… yeah."

He didn't know what else to say and it sort of slipped out of him. He could almost hear Lily in the back of his mind snorting, 'Yeah, wishful thinking', and smiled to himself.

"Okay," Ianna said and got up. "See you around."

James nodded at her and leaned back.

Sirius and Joey came back minutes after, both grinning and out of breath.

"Finished already?" James asked with a smirk.

"Shut up, Prongs." Sirius said and looked at Ianna who talked to her friend. "What were you talking to that girl about?"

"You. Her friend, the one with the blonde hair, wanted to know if you had a girlfriend. I said no."

"All right." Sirius grinned and got up.

James watched as Sirius walked over to the girls and sat down. James sighed and leaned back again. Half and hour later Sirius pocked him in the ribs.

"What?" he asked annoyed.

"I have a date tomorrow night!" Sirius said excited.

"With who?"

"Brea. The one who had asked if I was single."

"Congratulations then."

An hour later they went home. Joey went to her own house to bath and James, along with Lily, and Sirius went back to James' house.

Later in the evening they all sat outside in James' garden and played a muggle game called ludo. Lily beat them all because she had played it before and they others didn't know the rules very well, but James missed that the little men in the game didn't hit each other when they landed on the same square. Everything went fine and Lily only got mad once when James accidentally jumped up from his chair because he won over Sirius. That resulted in Lily getting pulled of her chair and down into the dust on the ground. James helped her up and took advantage of the situation, trying to help brush the dirt of her skirt. The next thing he knew was that he had a burning cheek that had a hand-formed red mark after Lily's hand.

It was late night before they all went to bed; James with a still ill-tempered Lily.


	5. Girls' Night, No Way!

Disclaimer: N-O-T-H-I-N-G really is mine. Noooothing. sigh

5 – Girls' night, no way!

The next day went better than planned. Lily wasn't mad at James anymore around noon, and she and Joey asked James and Sirius if they wanted to go the mall. They agreed to go, but regretted it just as they entered the centre. Lily and Joey had to try almost every possible shoe in the shoe-shop and James and Sirius couldn't do anything about it. Then Lily and Joey dragged them into a shop for underwear. They were more pleased with that, but were disappointed that the girls wouldn't try on the black and red set Sirius had found, and even more disappointed when the girls wouldn't let them see what they were trying on. After that Lily and Joey had to try several summer dresses and skirts. All James and Sirius had to do was carry the bags, and there were more and more for each store. At last they fell down in two chairs at a little kiosk which served ice-cream.

"What do you want girls?" James asked them. "It's on me."

Lily looked at him a few seconds. "Sorbet," she said.

James looked at the menu. "There're ten different sorbets. Which one do you want?"

Lily leaned a little over to James and looked at the menu. James smelled her perfume and smiled, before looking up at Joey.

"And what about you?"

"Chocolate," she said and smiled, while looking at James with a gaze he did not like.

"And you?" James looked at Sirius.

"Pistachio."

James looked back at Lily. Her eyes were still searching the menu.

"Decided yet?"

Lily bit her lower lip. "I think I'm going with the lemon…" she said hesitating.

"Great," James said and smiled.

They sat for a few more minutes before a low girl with blonde hair came over to ask what they wanted.

"Umm… A chocolate, pistachio, lemon sorbet and orange sorbet. All big."

"No, James I can't eat that much," Lily said.

"Then just leave the rest," James said to Lily before looking at the waitress. "That's all."

"Okay, thank you," the waitress said and left.

"I could ask her out too," Sirius said while he cocked his head and watched her back.

"Have you ever considered trying to be with the same girl for more than a week?" Joey asked Sirius.

"Never," Sirius said simply. "What would be fun about that?"

Joey opened her mouth to reply, but James stopped her with his hand. "Don't. I've tried, but it's impossible."

Joey didn't seem like she wanted to let it go, but did. She just had one last comment, "It's great to be in a relationship."

James knew that Joey liked to be in a relationship and was nothing like Sirius. If they started a discussion like that, they would probably never stop.

"Joey's right," he said after some seconds. "But just let it go."

Sirius didn't answer; he was busy looking into Joey's shopping bags. The waitress came back with the ice and James paid her.

"How can you buy that much stuff?" Sirius asked out of nowhere.

"How can we not?" Joey asked him back. "We need it."

Sirius pulled a black bra out of Joey's back and grinned.

"That's some pretty underwear," he said and grinned even more.

"Shut up!" Joey said and grabbed the bra and her bag. "Don't touch it."

"May I watch while you change into it?" Sirius asked with a glint in his eyes.

"If I can look next time you're changing," Joey said sarcastically while putting the bra down in the bag again.

"It's deal!" Sirius said, smiling wide.

Joey looked at him a few seconds. "You didn't realise I was joking?"

"You were?" Sirius asked and his smile faded. "Damn…"

"Joey, you should know better than give Sirius the opportunity to watch a girl undress," James said.

"Yeah, honestly..." Sirius said and showed the white of his eyes, while eating some of his ice.

James and Lily exchanged glances and looked away before bursting out laughter. When James had suppressed the laughter he turned to Joey again.

"And don't ever say 'undress', 'naked' or 'sleep with' in the beginning of a sentence… He won't hear the rest."

Joey made a half snort half giggle and Sirius looked at James.

"That's not true!" he said offended.

"Isn't it? Okay! Joey will undress in front of you the day I ask Maria Kent out."

Joey snorted because she knew that would never happen, as Maria was a person James would never get near, but Sirius had an absent-minded expression. James grinned at him, and Lily looked like she didn't know what to say.

"Padfoot!" James said and Sirius shook himself. "What did I just say?"

"That Joey would undress in front of me!" Sirius said smiling.

"If…?" James continued.

Sirius opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came past his lips. Lily and Joey laughed at him.

"Didn't think so either," James smiled and leaned back.

"So what should we do for the rest of the day when we get back?" Lily asked after some time.

"I'm going on a date," Sirius said and smiled. "So it will only be the three of you."

"Uh!" Joey exclaimed and looked at Lily. "Let's do some girl stuff!"

"Like what?" Lily asked.

"I don't know… Paint our toenails and do facemasks?"

"Yeah. It would be fu-"

"No way!" James cut her off. "I'm not going to stand a whole day with make-up and perfume! And gossip! And boy-talk! It will be a living nightmare!"

"Stop that. We're not that bad." Joey said.

"Right," James snorted.

Lily sighed and slowly shook her head. "We are not that bad… We could paint James' toenails too!" she added with a glint in her eye.

"No you couldn't!" James said while pulling his feet up under him.

The two girls laughed, and Sirius looked at James with a mischievous smile.

"You would be finished as a marauder if that happened," he said to James.

"I wouldn't let that happen."

"We're two. You're one. We can just force it on you," Joey said.

"That would be an idea," Lily said, smiling mischievously.

"I have to take a picture of that and show it to Moony and Wormtail," Sirius grinned.

Both Joey and Lily looked at Sirius for a couple of minutes with questioned gazes before Joey moved a bit.

"What's up with those names?" She asked. "Everyone knows them, but no one knows why."

Sirius and James exchanged glances before James nodded. "It's just the way we are… You wouldn't call me something that didn't fit me," he said quickly. "Like wimp!"

Lily raised an eyebrow while Joey sniggered. Sirius looked as if he tried to swallow his ice and not laugh.

"Right…" Lily said slowly.

James could see that none of the girls really believed in the explanation, but he couldn't say more without getting himself, Sirius and Peter into very serious trouble.

"Perhaps we should get back," Sirius said, trying to change the subject. He ate the last of his ice and got up.

"Yeah…" James agreed.

The two girls showed the white of their eyes and got up too. James and Sirius exchanged glances once again before James grabbed a couple of Lily's bags and they all went out of the mall and apparated back home.

Later that day it was clear to James that the girls had meant what they said about the girls' night. Lily had somehow managed to provide a TV that could run without electricity (as she called it). James and Joey did not understand it and just looked as Lily performed a couple of spells and suddenly a picture appeared on the screen.

"Wow!" James exclaimed and jumped back while pointing at the TV. "What is that?"

Lily looked at James, rubbing her shoulder. "First: please stop jumping away while we're linked together. Second: it's a TV! Third: now, is there a kiosk or another little shop around here which have opened now?"

Joey looked at Lily as she had gone mad while James mumbled a sorry.

"Yeah. Down the corner," Joey nodded slowly, while looking at the TV. "What does it do?"

"It's shows movies and shows if you turn it on as I have done now."

James tilted his head a bit. "Right… and what do we have to do with it?"

"Rent a movie!" Lily said; she couldn't stop grinning. "Now, let's go down to find one."

Joey followed Lily and James on the way out and they walked down to the little kiosk. Lily found a couple of movies and rented two of them.

Sirius left about seven o'clock to pick up Brea on his newly bought motorbike and left James alone with the two girls. James looked out the window and saw Sirius drive away with a loud roar; then he turned around and sighed.

"Are you going to make face-masks and do nail-things now?"

"James, we aren't actually that bad," Lily said and slowly dragged him over to the couch. "We just want to watch a movie. But if you insist, we can paint your toenails."

"I'm fine without." James said and sat down in the corner of the couch next to Lily. "So, what are we watching?"

"Just a girl movie," Lily said shortly and turned the TV on.

James tilted his head as the screen turned on and showed a picture. It moved and talked too.

"Wow…" he said and cocked his head, leaning a bit forward, open-mouthed.

"Yeah…" Joey said while she too was staring open-mouthed at the screen.

"Little brains, little amusements," Lily sighed.

James stopped looking at the TV. "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"Popcorn?" Joey asked from the armchair she sat in.

"Sure," Lily said and shrugged.

Joey conjured popcorn and gave some of them to Lily. James just had his eyes fixed on the screen again.

After twenty minutes it was very clear to him, that it wasn't a movie that he would ever like. He almost dozed of and could hear Lily and Joey talking, but not really hear what they were saying. He blinked a couple of times to make his view more clear. I would be embarrassing if he felt asleep now, it was only around eight.

Lily moved a bit next to James, and pushed herself a bit down at the same time as she leaned against James. And when she rested her head against his shoulder too, his heart skipped a beat. He tried to make his heart beat more silently, but it seamed out of control. He wondered if this was something all girls did to everyone they were watching movies with, or what was going on. Because deep inside he wished Lily had feelings for him, but he was sure she hadn't, and he had a hard time figuring out what Lily meant with this. It could be nothing, but it also could be everything. At that second he wished he had listened more that time when he was twelve and his father had talked to him about stuff like this. He slowly breathed in the smell of Lily. It was nice and had the touch of something he couldn't quite place.

"Stop it!" James muttered to himself, without knowing he had spoken aloud.

"Huh?" Lily turned her head and looked at him.

"Nothing," he quickly said and looked at the TV again.

He could see in the corner of his eye that Lily once again turned her head to the TV and watched the movie.

After some time James had almost fallen asleep. He shook his head slightly. He could hear Lily and Joey talking again and the movie where running on the TV. He pushed himself slightly down in the couch so he almost laid in it with his feet on the table. Lily had pulled her legs and feet up at the couch and now almost lay there, resting against James.

What did Lily mean by lying like this with him? James could not figure out if all girls were like that or just Lily, or if she had started to have feelings for him; the last thing probably being mostly wishful thinking. Maybe he was just thinking too much about it…


	6. The Love Life of Sirius Black

Disclaimer: Errm. _Would_ you even believe me if I said I was JK Rowling? No, didn't think so, so let's agree that I'm not, okay?

6 – Sirius' love life

James blinked a couple of times. The sun was shinning in his face and he was almost blinded. As he looked around he found himself sleeping in the living room where they had watched movies last night. James yawned and looked out of the window. It was early morning, and he and Lily were lying down on the couch with a blanket over them. It was a small couch so Lily lay half on top of him with her one hand on his shoulder and her head on his chest.

"Um, Lily…" James tried to wake her up. He let his hand slide over her back. "Lily…"

She slowly lifted her head. "Huh?"

"'Morning," James grinned.

Lily blinked a couple of times, before slowly getting up. James sat up next to her.

"'M- Morning…" she yawned. "What are we doing down here?"

"I was kind of hoping you could answer that," James grinned while running his hand through his hair.

"It's not funny." Lily said; she seemed to have woken up at once.

"What's not funny?" James asked and looked at her.

"That we slept down here. And stop running your hand through your hair," she said irritably.

"Why?" James asked, wondering what had caused Lily's bad temper this morning.

"It's annoying!"

"But my hair looks better when I do that!"

"It looks great anyway."

James was about to say something, but stopped. He looked at Lily who looked back at him a few seconds before she blushed furiously.

"You like my hair!" James smirked.

"No I don't!" Lily said, but looked down.

"Yes you do. You just said it!"

"But I didn't mean it!"

"Yes you did. You like my hair. You like my hair," James sang triumphantly.

"James, stop being like that!" Lily exclaimed. "Gee! You're so annoying! And arrogant!"

James stopped singing. "Sorry…" he mumbled.

"You better be."

There were a couple of minutes of awkward silence.

"Should we get out in the kitchen and get something to eat?" James asked while scratching his neck.

"Yeah," Lily said and got up.

James followed. Sirius was sitting alone in the kitchen, eating a pile of toast. He grinned triumphantly when he saw them enter.

"What were you doing in there?" He asked, but seconds after added, "No, no, don't tell me. I don't wanna know!"

He grinned and Lily showed the white of her eyes.

"One more word, Black, and I'll make sure your death will be very long and painful!"

Sirius just grinned even more and James remembered something. "How did your date go?"

"Fine! Actually, she's upstairs, taking a shower."

Lily's jaw dropped. "You brought her here?"

"Yeah," Sirius shrugged.

"He always does," James said.

"He does? Into your house, when your parents are home?"

"No," Sirius said. "Sometimes we go to her house. And James's parents sleeps in the other end of the house. And they don't care. They just think the girls are sweet."

James pulled Lily over to the table. They sat down and began to eat. After five minutes Brea, as her name was, came downstairs with wet hair. She was wearing a light blue top and a long white skirt.

"Hi!" She said lightly to Lily and James before going over to Sirius and kissing him.

"So, how did you sleep?" James asked Sirius with a glint in his eye.

"Good, the two hours I actually did sleep," Sirius grinned.

Brea punched him gently on his upper arm, grinning. She was still flirting. Lily rolled her eyes when no one was looking, and James snorted into his orange juice.

"What?" Sirius asked while looking at James.

"Nothing," Lily said innocently and watched as James dried juice of his face with a napkin. "James apparently just has a hard time drinking orange juice."

"I don't. You just make it kind of hard," James said and dried the juice of the table.

"I do not!" Lily grinned.

"Yes, you do," James said and threw the wet napkin at her.

"EW!" she grinned. "Stop that and concentrate on eating instead! You need that I see."

Sirius looked at Brea, who looked at Lily and James with interest.

"What?" Lily asked as she saw Brea's glance.

Brea shrugged. "You two just look so cute together."

Lily's smiled dropped a bit. "Um… we're not a couple," she said while shaking her head.

"You're not? Because that was Ianna told me."

Suddenly James's eyes widened. He jumped up.

"Hey!" Lily exclaimed as she was pulled over his chair.

"Lily, can I have a word?" James asked her.

"Yeah, but you really have to stop doing that!" she said and rubbed her ribs as she got up.

James went, with Lily right behind him, into the living room. He took a deep breath, looking at Lily.

"I kind of told that girl, Ianna, from the beach that we were a couple," he started, but when Lily opened her mouth to say something he stopped her with his hand. "No, listen to me first! She asked if I wanted to go and have ice-cream with her and Brea, but I thought it wouldn't be a good idea so I said no and she asked if we were a couple and it kind of slipped out."

When James had stopped talking he stood with his arm outstretched because Lily had crossed her arms and looked at him, trying to tell if he was telling the truth.

"What could I else have said? She would just have begun to question the chain," James argued.

He could see Lily was thinking hard. Some seconds passed before she finally sighed and let her arms fall.

"Fine. I believe in you. But you have to tell Brea that we're having a break. Otherwise I may decide to kill you after all."

James grinned. "Deal. And what's with the killing people today?"

Lily smiled even thought it was obvious she tried not to. Then James grinned more at her. "Stop that!" Lily grinned.

"You just should have seen the look on your face," James noticed and started to walk.

"I couldn't possibly look half as stupid as you," Lily teased.

James stopped. "You think I look stupid?" he asked and gave Lily a look and she snorted.

"When you do that, yes!" she grinned.

James looked at her with raised eyebrows. Lily looked back at him, trying to hold the laugh back.

"You done yet?"

Lily closed her eyes and opened them again a couple of seconds after. "Yes," she said, smirking slightly.

"Good. Let's go inside."

Inside Sirius and Brea was kissing so James cleared his throat to show they were back.

"Oops," Brea giggled. "Didn't see you." Lily showed the white of her eyes when Brea wasn't looking and she and James walked over and they sat down at the table together.

"What was that about?" Brea asked.

"We just had things to talk about," Lily said seriously.

"Like what?"

"James has just misunderstood something… We're on a break," she added when Brea looked at her with wonder.

"Ohh."

James and Sirius exchanged glances.

"It has just been such a mess lately. It's best this way," Lily said, still with a sad and serious expression. "We both need to think about our situation."

James had to admire the way Lily could act. She said it all like it was real and really had her feelings in it. A car beeped outside and everyone looked out.

"That must be my taxi," Brea said and got up.

She grabbed her bag on the floor and walked out the door with Sirius right behind her. James heard them kiss goodbye out in the hall whereupon Brea spoke.

"Here's my phone number, so you can call me."

"I'll do that…" Sirius said as the door closed. He walked inside the kitchen again and crumpled the paper. "… the day pigs fly."

He threw the paper in a dustbin and sat down again. James looked at Sirius with raised eyebrows, and so did Lily.

"What?" Sirius asked.

"You won't call her?" Lily asked.

"I don't know how to use a salephone," he said and shrugged.

Lily sighed. "It's called a telephone! And I could teach you."

"Yeah. But I'm afraid of mugglethings. So that won't go."

"You can just say you don't want to see her again," James said and ate a bite of his toast.

"Thanks Prongs."

"You're welcome."

Sirius rolled his eyes before looking at Lily again. She just leaned back on her chait and looked at him and James in turn.

"It's not like I don't want to see her again-" Sirius began.

"Yes it is." James cut in.

"… I just don't have the time to it," Sirius continued, ignoring James.

"You have a whole month until Hogwarts starts again." Lily noticed.

Sirius sighed. "I can see you won't let this go before I say that I actually don't want to see her again."

"But it is like that, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"You're mean," Lily said simple.

"I'm not mean."

"He's just Sirius." James sighed.

Both Lily and Sirius turned their gazes at James instead of each other, and James knew he had to say something more now.

"That's just the way Sirius is! Sleeps with a girl, dump her the next day. All routine!" He shrugged and took a bite of his toast.

Sirius nodded. "Yeah."

Lily didn't respond and ate her breakfast in silence, while Sirius and James talked Quidditch. There was a match the next week, not long from where they were. They could go there, if Lily agreed. Lily didn't answer right away and said she would think about it.

They all sat in the kitchen, not really doing nothing when Joey stuck her head through the door.

"What's up?" she grinned.

"Hello, Joey!" James greeted and smiled.

"Did you sleep well?" she asked with a glint in her eye as she entered and sat down next to Sirius.

"Why?" Lily asked.

"You just looked so cute. Lying there, sleeping peaceful on the couch in each other's arms," she looked dreamy out of the window.

"Oh, shut up!" Lily said.

James noticed that she blushed uncontrollably as she said this.

"Actually, that was why I didn't wake you up. It was just so abnormal to see you two like that."

"Be careful now!" Lily warned. "It's your fault all this, perhaps James and I are planning a revenge."

James nodded. "Yeah. You can't be sure of anything form now on. Everything can be a trick," he said very mysteriously.

Joey snorted.

"I'll keep that in mind next time I want to eat a toast," Sirius grinned and grabbed yet another toast.

"Anyways," James started to change the subject. "Sirius and I have talked about going and watch a Quidditch match here next week. Joey?"

Joey looked at James for a couple a seconds and then looked at Lily. "Sure… You really want to come, Lily?"

Lily shrugged. "It's only fair. James watched movies with us yesterday; I'll go watch Quidditch next week."

James smiled. "Thanks, Lily."

Lily just shook her head. "Don't. It's just fair that way. We have to compromise sometimes."

"Yeah!" Sirius exclaimed. "We're going watch Quidditch!"

They all spend the rest of the day outside, not really doing anything. Nevertheless it was long past midnight when they all went to bed. They had had loads of fun, and Lily and James still grinned when they entered their room.

"But when you think about it, it was a bit funny, right?" James asked Lily.

They had just talked about how he and Sirius once had flooded the whole first floor. Sirius and James had earned two weeks detention and 50 points had been taken from Gryffindor. Every class on that floor had been cancelled for the rest of the day, which they were pleased with as they had double History of Magic.

"Perhaps…" Lily said and started to change into her t-shirt and shorts. "Especially when professor Zaunbrecher was knocked of his feet and kind of surfed all the way down in the dungeons."

James laughed. "Did you see that?"

"Yeah. I stood in the entrance hall when he came down with the wave."

"Wish I had. But I saw when Dumbledore stopped the wave. What a sight it was. He just stood all controlled and calm and made this invincible wall which blocked the water."

Lily grinned slightly. "I just don't get how you can keep coming up with tricks like that," she said and crept down under the blanket.

"Me neither," James admitted and pushed himself down under his too. "But Remus puts a stopper for the worst of our ideas. Sirius isn't too pleased with him."

Lily sighed. "Doesn't Sirius ever bother you?"

James was confused. "What? Why?"

"The way he is with the girls. Dumping them straight away… like today?"

"Hmm…" James sighed. "No, not really."

"It's disgusting," Lily said.

"That's just the way he is. It was actually some habit we both had once, he just never stopped."

"'Both'? What's that suppose to mean?"

"Don't say you never noticed, Lily," James mumbled. "Once I was just as bad as he is."

Lily was quite for a minute while James turned a bit to lie better.

"Yeah. That's actually true," she said after some time. "It begun in the middle of our fourth year, right?"

"Yes. And I was worst through our fifth year. It kind of stopped through last year. I'm not like that anymore," James said.

He had no idea why he told Lily things like this, but she was very easy to talk to, and he was comfortable talking to.

Lily was quite for a couple of seconds. "I think you could be a really sweet guy if you wanted to, James," she said after some time.

James didn't reply, but just looked at Lily while she turned onto her side, so she lay with her back to James.

"G'night," she said.

James listened as Lily sighed. "Night."


	7. Quidditch

Disclaimer: As if I could be JKR…

7 – Quidditch

The next five days passed by very quickly. They didn't exactly do anything special; they went to the beach a couple of days. One of the days James spotted Brea and Ianna, not far from them, and Sirius suddenly started packing all their stuff and they walked the other direction. Joey and James found this very funny.

The evening before the Quidditch match Sirius and James forced the two girls to go to bed early. They all had to be full of energy for the next day. The match was to begin at 12 exactly and at 11.30 everyone stood down in the kitchen, ready to leave. Both James and Sirius were wearing orange scarves and Sirius had a small banner rolled up in his hand. Joey had a hat in her hand, and Lily just had herself.

"Okay," Sirius said. "We're going then."

James smiled. "And Lily, you just grab my arm and I'll apparate you."

Lily nodded. "Yeah."

Lily grabbed James's arm and they all apparated. Next thing they knew, they were all standing in a big crowd of people, all in orange or red clothes. James looked at the four tickets and headed towards the tribune.

"Umm…" Lily began from his one side. "Who're the two teams playing?"

"It's the Wigtown Wanderers versus the Chudley Cannons!" James said excitedly, looking down at her.

"Okay," Lily said and looked around. "Umm, where did Sirius and Joey go?"

James looked up. Lily had said something. Sirius and Joey were out of sight. They stopped up and looked around.

"Hmm…" James said while looking over Lily's to see if they were behind her. "I have absolutely no idea…"

Someone came rushing past them and the persons shoulder bumped hard right into Lily's shoulder.

"Ah!" she exclaimed and fell backwards.

Luckily James had very good reflexes and caught her by the waist. Lily had grasped out for James neck when she fell, and had her arm around his neck when he slowly pulled her up again.

"All right there?" James asked her.

Lily nodded. They stood for a couple of seconds, just looking each other in the eyes, before someone cleared their throat next to them. They both jumped and turned around to see Joey and Sirius.

"And what have you been doing?" Sirius asked with a glint in his eyes.

James looked down and noticed that he and Lily stood very close together, and in a position which only Sirius could misunderstand. He quickly let go of Lily.

"I fell over and James caught me," Lily said simply. "Where did you go?"

"Joey forgot her hat and we had to get it," Sirius shrugged.

James looked at them for a couple of seconds. "Should we go get our seats?"

They all agreed and walked into the stadium. James handed over their tickets and they walked towards their seats, which were very high up and they could see all over the stadium. They sat down and were ready for the match to begin.

"Oh, my…" Lily muttered as she looked down. "That is a long way to fall."

"What?" James asked and followed her gaze. "Are you afraid of heights?"

"No. I just… don't like them very much." She said, making James snort. "Shut up and watch the game."

"It hasn't begun yet."

"Yes it has!" Sirius said from James right side and jumped up and pointed.

Fourteen players came walking out on the pitch. Seven of them were wearing orange quidditch robes and the other seven were wearing red.

"Welcome," A voice spoke over the stadium. "To the Wigtown Wanderers versus the Chudley Cannons match."

James looked excitedly at Sirius while the speaker presented the Wigtown Wanderers.

"… McDuff, Norman and last but not least Kempster!"

The Wigtown Wanderers supporters cheered.

"This is going to be so great!" James exclaimed.

"Yeah. The Cannons have to win!" Sirius said.

Both the boys were smiling all over their faces as the Chudley Cannon's players were presented.

"… Houston, Lane, Somerville and Bangs!"

James and Sirius cheered along with the rest of the supporters of the Chudleys Cannons. Lily and Joey looked at them as if they had gone mad.

The game began.

"The Cannons are in possession of the quaffle. Weston passes it to Taylor who passes it to Lane who shoots! But it was saved by Norman."

The Cannon's supporters groaned.

"… flying towards the goals with Weston right behind him! OHH! Houston hits him with a bludger! The Cannons are in possession of the quaffle once more! Lane's flying towards the goals. Franklin tries to tackle him, but fails! Lane passes the quaffle to Weston who shoots. HE SCORES! 10-0 to the Cannons…"

James and Sirius got up and cheered along with the rest. James accidentally put his hands in the air, and someone made a little shriek next to him and he was almost pulled down on the ground. He looked down and saw Lily sitting with her arm over her head.

"Sorry." James said and helped her up.

"It's okay. But try to watch out next time." Lily said and rubbed her knee.

James smiled to her before he turned his attention at the match again.

"…Torry passes it to Franklin who dodges a bludger sent by Jenkins. He passes the quaffle back to Torry who shoots…! AND HE SCORES! 10-10 and the Cannons have the quaffle…"

Every Cannons' supporter groaned, while the Wanderers' supporters cheered.

"GO CANNONS!" Sirius exclaimed.

James grinned and turned to watch the match again.

"… Torry tries to tackle him – OH! What a feint! Amazing! He's long past Torry and it's only him and the keeper. He's flying left – no right – he shoots! Norman is all gone and he scores!"

The game continued for two hours before James and Sirius noticed that Lily and Joey weren't watching the match anymore, but talked instead.

"…yeah," Lily said. "But that's not a-"

"Why aren't you watching the match?" James interrupted.

Lily looked at him and sighed. "James, the game has been going on for almost two hours now! It's the same we see over and over again. Some guy scores and another guy almost gets knocked of his broom…"

"If you paid more attention, you would see that it's not the same over and over again."

"Right. See him over there flying fast because he want to tackle someone or he wants to get the quaffle from his team-mate."

James looked at the player Lily was pointing at. He was from the Cannons and flying pretty fast, but he flew away from his team-mates, and another player was just behind him.

"He's seen the snitch!" James exclaimed as he saw the snitch flying only some feet in front of him.

"He has?" Lily asked and got up.

"YEAH!" Sirius exclaimed.

As the whole stadium eyed the two seekers flying, shoulder against shoulder, towards the snitch, trying to catch it, it went all quiet. Every single person held their breath, hoping their seeker would catch the snitch. A bludger was flying trough the air towards the two seekers, both dodged it. Suddenly the Wanderers' seeker came a few feet in front of the Cannon seeker. He stretched his arm out, his hand shut tightly around the snitch.

James let himself dump down on the chair.

"Damn," he muttered.

Sirius dumped down net to him and sighed. James looked at him.

"We only lost by 40 points," Sirius said.

"Yeah, but we lost," James said.

They all sat for a couple of minutes, looking down at the field and the Quidditch players who were landing.

James had not realised that all the players had left the field before Lily slowly pulled him up. James looked questioningly at her.

"Come on," she said and smiled slightly. "Everyone's leaving. Let's go too."

They all headed out of the stadium and apparated home.

"That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be," Lily said as they entered the house.

"Lily," James said. "You and Joey talked for the most of the time the match was going on."

"That's actually not true. We talked through the most of the match – everyone does – but we only stopped paying attention ten minutes before he caught the snitch."

Joey appeared on Lily's left side and both she and James looked at her.

"That's actually right, James," she said. "And you know I love Quidditch, and wouldn't stop paying attention to a whole match."

"All right."

"Hey, wanna barbecue? Sirius said as his head popped up between Lily and James.

Joey sighed. "It's only something past two."

"So?" Sirius asked. "You're always in the mood for barbecue!"

James grinned, and Joey and Lily exchanged glances.

"I'm fresh," James said and shrugged.

"Count me in as well," Lily said and smiled.

"Ahh, me too," Joey grinned.

"Yeahay!" Sirius exclaimed. "I'll go turn on the grill."

Sirius still smiled as he walked out of the kitchen and into the garden.

"So, we're barbecuing…" Joey said.

"I guess we are," James shrugged.

"But why does he do it in the muggle way?" Lily asked.

"Sirius loves to barbecue. He always has…" James said and slowly began to pull the two girls out the door. "And he's actually very good at it."

"Sirius Black can cook?" Lily said stunned. "That's something I thought I never should hear."

James snorted. "Yeah, believe it or not. We're more than you give us credit for."

Out in the garden Sirius had started cooking.

"How's it going, Padfoot?" James asked.

"Fine…" Sirius said with his back at the others.

"Is there something we can help with?" Joey asked.

Sirius straightened up. "Hmm… If you girls want to have salad, you have to make that."

"I could use salad," Lily remarked.

"We can do that," James said to her.

And then, an hour later, Sirius had grilled some sausages and other things, James and Lily had made salad, and Joey had laid the table, and they were all ready to eat.

"It looks great, Sirius!" Joey said as they sat down.

Sirius smiled wide. Lily also smiled, and then sighed.

"What's up?" James asked.

"There's only two and a half weeks until school begins," she said and took some salad to her plate.

"Don't be that negative. It's not that bad." James said while grabbing a sausage.

"I'm not being negative. I'm just stating a fact."

"Yeah," Sirius said. "In a negative way."

Lily opened her mouth to speak, but James cut her off.

"Sirius just means that you have to enjoy the moment and not think about what's going to happen in two weeks."

"Yeah, it's depressing."

Lily grinned. "Then I'm sorry. I love the present moment," she said in mock of seriousness.

"That's better," James said and pattered Lily on the shoulder.

Lily smiled up at James before she turned her gaze down to her plate. Joey grinned and Sirius stuffed a sausage into his mouth in an attempt of trying to suppress a smile.

James frowned for a second but quickly turned to Sirius and they started to talk about the match earlier that day.

Again this night, it was very late before they cleaned up and went to bed. James could hear that Lily fell asleep almost immediately, but he didn't fall asleep until very late. He had no idea why.


	8. Owls and Letters

8 – Owls and Letters

James blinked a couple of times. He yawned loudly and turned slightly to look at Lily; she was asleep. It was the first time he had woken up before her and couldn't help but wonder why. After a couple of minutes of studying Lily he slowly sat up and looked out of the window. The sky was blue and the sun was shining already; it had to be around eleven. He quickly turned his gaze back to Lily. She looked extremely cute. Peaceful. Her red hair was slightly messy, yet pretty, scattered at the white pillow. Her lips were formed in a small smile and she looked as though she was having a nice dream.

James couldn't help himself; he let his hand run through her hair, removing a single stray from her face. It was incomprehensible how a young girl could hold that much beauty, elegance and power over him at the same time. He slowly pulled his hand back; Lily probably wouldn't approve of him touched her while she was asleep. Instead he pulled his knees up under his chin and continued to look at her. It was like he couldn't get enough for her.

He sighed deeply just as someone knocked at the door. The person didn't wait for an answer and stepped inside at once. It was Sirius.

"Morning," he nodded and entered the room.

"Yeah," James sighed; he had returned his gaze to Lily.

"What's up?"

"Isn't she beautiful?"

Sirius hesitated. "It's just a sleeping girl. I've seen loads of them."

James looked up at him with raised eyebrows. "You're so insensitive."

"I know that," Sirius said and sat down, "and you're too sensitive."

"No I'm not," James said and looked at Lily again. "She's just…"

"I get it," Sirius grunted. "Want to get some breakfast?"

James looked at him with raised eyebrows, and when Sirius didn't get the hint he raised his left hand and Lily's right followed.

"Yeah. I'd love some breakfast," James said. "Will you go get it?"

Sirius smiled sheepishly. "We can just wait till she wakes up."

James nodded. "I think we have to."

"Okay," Sirius said and got up. "I'm hungry. You can wait for your girl."

James snarled at him and slowly lay down again. As if having felt it, Lily moved. James watched as she rubbed her face in her hands and slowly sat up, yawning.

"Morning," James smiled.

Lily smiled at him. "Good morning."

Half an hour later they entered the kitchen, ready to eat breakfast. Sirius had already eaten and was now looked through a few magazines. Just as James and Lily sat down at the table a black and white owl flew through the open window. James smiled.

"Whose owl is that?" Lily asked.

"My parents. I guess they want to hear how everything's going." James said and grabbed the letter.

'Dear James.

We just want to let you know that we're doing fine in China, but we still have a lot of things to see. We probably won't be home for another two weeks. You can do the shopping for school by yourself, right? But don't worry; we'll be home to get you to the Hogwarts Express. We miss you very much, and hope you're doing fine. How's Lily? And Sirius? Does he eat enough? And do you? Try to stay out of trouble, and the neighbours' car is not a toy!

Love you, Mum and Dad.'

James grabbed a quill and wrote his answer back.

'Hey.

I'm fine, Lily's fine and Sirius's fine. We all have loads of fun with Josephina and she's fine too. I have not made any trouble, so you don't need to worry. Enjoy the rest of your vacation… Love you both and miss you.

Hope to see you soon, James.'

James folded the letter and attached it to the owl. It flew out the window and away in the horizon.

Almost a week passed by before he saw something else out there. It was definitely an owl. When it came nearer James could see it was two owls. Lily stood by his side and looked out the window with her head slightly cocked. The one owl headed towards Joey's house and the other flew inside James's kitchen. A little bunch of letters landed on the table, but Sirius grabbed it before James made it.

"Ahh," Sirius said dramatically. "Our Hogwarts letters…"

James and Lily looked at Sirius in a way which told him to hurry up.

He handled Lily her letter. "Here's your one. And yours Prongs. It's a bit thick. Perhaps McGonagall asked you to start your detention on the 1st of September because she knows you'll mess up," he gave James his letter.

James grabbed it, but before he opened it Lily next to him had ripped her open and shrieked.

"What?" James asked and looked at her.

"I-I'm head girl!" she said breathless.

James smiled. "That's great, Lily! You're the only with a clean enough record to get that. It couldn't be anyone other than you."

"I'm happy for you," Sirius said from his chair.

Lily smiled back at them. "Thank you, you two. Now, open yours!" she said to James and Sirius.

Sirius quickly opened his and just shrugged. James looked from Sirius to a very excited Lily and slowly opened his own letter. As he turned it upside down a little badge fell out. He turned it and saw the letters 'HB'.

"What is it?" Lily asked and looked as James was very quiet.

James slowly showed her the badge.

Lily grinned. "That address must be wrong… It doesn't say 'Lupin' in the letter, does it?"

"Nope," James said stunned and showed her the letter. "Potter. It says Potter. I'm head boy!"

Lily shrieked again and flung herself around James. His arm was twisted half around himself and it hurt, but he didn't say anything. First he was a bit shocked, but then he put his other arm around Lily. He looked over her shoulder at Sirius, who sat on a chair and looked at them with a glint in his eye.

Lily suddenly seamed to be aware of the situation and let go of James. "Sorry," she mumbled a bit awkwardly.

"Don't be," James said. "We're head boy and girl!"

Sirius got up from his chair and looked at the badges. Lily smiled widely and James grinned.

"You know what that means, Prongs?" Sirius asked in a very unusual voice.

"No, what?" James asked back.

"Because of that badge it's only me, Moony and Wormtail who'll be doing pranks. You're head boy and have to behave."

James thought Sirius looked a bit disappointed, and quickly shrugged.

"There's always room for some hexing and pulling pranks!" he said.

"You promise that?" Sirius asked seriously.

"I promise," James said.

Lily snorted and they both looked at her.

"What?" James asked.

"Nothing…" she said. "You just sounded like two girls who just promised each other they would keep in touch over the summer or something like that."

James and Sirius looked at each other for a couple of seconds before they both stepped a step away.

"EW!" Sirius said, disgusted.

"Don't ever talk like that again, Padfoot," James said.

"Right back at you."

Lily grinned. The door to the garden burst open and Joey entered.

"Got your letters?" she asked and smiled.

"Yep!" said Lily and smiled.

"Why are you smiling that wi-" Joey started, but stopped suddenly with her mouth hanging open. "You're head girl, right?"

"Yes!" Lily squealed excitedly.

"That's great!" Joey exclaimed and hugged Lily. "Does it say who the head boy is? Because you're gonna spend a lot of time with him. Uh, maybe it's Jack Jones from Ravenclaw! He's just so hot! Or maybe it's-"

"It's me, Joey," James said and interrupted her.

Joey stopped talking like she had just been stunned. Lily pushed slightly at her before she moved again.

"You? You're sure it doesn't say 'Lupin' or 'Jones' and been sent to you by a mistake?"

James looked down at his letter again. "'P-O-T-T-E-R', Potter!" he spelled like a seven year old child and smiled.

"Stop that!" Joey said and pushed to him. "I just thought you would be the last choice… beside Sirius of course." She added as she looked at Sirius and saw him trying to lick his nose with his tongue, very cross-eyed.

James grinned as he looked at Sirius, but then turned to Joey again.

"Dumbledore must think I'm the best for the job since it's me who has gotten the badge."

Both girls were quiet and just looked at James.

"It actually makes sense," Lily said after some time.

Both Joey and James looked at her in wonder and Sirius pulled his tongue back and looked at her too.

"I mean-" she said. "A little! You… you got ten OWLs all of them with an 'E' on an 'O', right?"

James nodded. "Six 'Outstanding's and four 'Exceeds Expectations's'," he said confirming. "But Sirius did that too…"

Lily was quiet for some time. "Then I can't explain it," she said and shook her head. "I mean… You're a bit more… what to call it? Down on earth than you used to be."

James grinned. "I never thought I would hear you say that."

"Well, it's true," Lily said and blushed.

James had no idea why she was blushing, but shrugged and took a last look at his badge before he found the rest of the papers in the envelope and read the list of books to buy.

"So, when are we going?" he asked the others.

"Where?" Sirius asked.

"To Diagon Alley," James said and showed the white of his eyes.

"What about the day after tomorrow. We don't have any plans there," Lily said.

"Lily, we haven't had any plans all summer. We could go now if we wanted," Joey said.

Now it was Lily's turn to show the white of her eyes.

"I think the day after tomorrow is fine," James said. "It's Tuesday and then there's not as many people there."

"There never are at these times," Lily said. "Everyone is too afraid to go outside their houses. We should be careful too."

James sighed. "Yeah… But that's not gonna stop me! Voldemort is not going to stop me!"

Lily raised an eyebrow. "James, relax. It's not like it's a test of bravery."

"And if it was, I'm sure you'd win," Sirius laughed.

"No," Joey said, "he'd win the big-headed prize!"

They all laughed except James.

"Yeah, ha, ha, ha! So funny!"

"But we're going the day after tomorrow then?" Sirius asked as they had stopped laughing.

"I think we are," Lily said, still wearing a smirk.


	9. Diagon Alley

9 – Diagon Alley

Two days later they all were ready down in the kitchen at 11 am. They would disapparate to the Diagon Alley, do their shopping and then go back home.

"Everyone ready?" James asked.

"'Ait a m'nut." Sirius said and finished chewing.

"Huh?" Joey asked.

Lily gave him a disgusted look and James grinned.

"Wait a minute," Sirius said more clearly now. He quickly ate the rest of his toast and smiled, "Ready."

"Great," James said and grabbed Lily and they disapparated to Diagon Alley together.

Next he opened his eyes and found himself in the middle of Diagon Alley with Lily by his side. Joey and Sirius apparated next to them. Not many people were to be seen. Most of them walked in groups of three or more and looked nervous.

"So, what do we need?" Sirius asked and looked at his paper.

"Books," James said and headed towards Flourish & Blotts with Lily.

Joey and Sirius quickly followed. Inside the store was a bit dusty and the bookshelves reached all the way to the ceiling. They all got a book for Charms, DADA and Transfiguration. Lily, James and Sirius bought a book for Potions. James and Sirius had Care of Magical Creatures and bought a book for that too. Joey and Lily both got the books for Arithmancy and Ancient Runes.

They left the bookstore with heavy bags and headed towards Madam Malkins to get new robes. Half an hour later they had all gotten new robes for their last year at Hogwarts. Joey and Lily used the presence of the boys to make them carry their bags once again. James had just shrugged and grabbed Lily's bags, but it took a bit longer for Joey to make Sirius carry her bags.

"Look at James! He's a gentleman. Carrying Lily's bags and all," she complained.

"Yeah," was Sirius' response. "But he's also James Potter; gentleman and helpful to others. I'm Sirius Black; only thinking about myself and how I'm going to make the next girl sleep with me."

James burst into laughter and Lily just looked disgusted at Sirius.

Joey showed the white of her eyes. "Just do it! Perhaps it actually would help if you carried some girls' bags."

"To be polite and helpful?" Sirius asked with raised eyebrows.

"Believe it or not, but some girls actually want that." Joey nodded.

Sirius sighed and grabbed Joey's bags. "But if it doesn't help when I try it, you owe me one."

"I promise you it does," Joey grinned.

James grinned at the thought of Joey teaching Sirius how to get girls, but thought somehow it was a good lecture for him. Lily seemed to think the same as she watched Sirius walk up the street with four bags and Joey walking lightly next to him with a smile on her lips. They both shook their heads and followed.

At last Lily, James and Sirius only had to go and buy new ingredients to Potions. James and Sirius needed to re-stock a bit more than Lily; mostly because they had brewed several banned or illegal potions to use to pranks through the years.

As James picked up extra liver from a mouse he couldn't resist the urge to throw it after Sirius. It hit him right in the face. Lily had not seen Sirius throw it back at James, and when he dodged it hit her instead.

Lily turned her head towards James extremely slowly. Her eyes were burning.

"It was Sirius," James croaked from the floor with hands over his head.

Lily picked up the liver from the floor and threw it at Sirius with such speed he couldn't react and the liver hit him right in the middle of his face. James grinned and conjured a wet napkin to help Lily dry the liver from her cheek. Lily grinned at Sirius who spat on the floor and couldn't hold a grin back either. They quickly paid for the ingredients and left the store.

"That was so embarrassing!" Lily exclaimed as they got out.

"I think it was rather fun," James said, remembering the liver in Sirius's mouth. "And you threw the liver too, remember?"

Joey laughed. "That was one of the best things you have ever done, Lily."

"Yeah!" James agreed.

Lily blushed, but smiled.

"It wasn't funny at all," Sirius said seriously and made a disgusted face.

"Oh my god! If this ever gets around at Hogwarts no girl will ever kiss you again, Sirius," Lily said and grinned.

Sirius turned pale. "You just shut it!"

James grinned. "That would be a nightmare. But don't worry, I won't tell anyone… yet."

"Good," Sirius grinned, he knew James was joking.

They walked a little further up Diagon Alley. Lily and Joey stopped at a few places to look at quills and other stuff.

"Hey, we could go look at brooms, Prongs?" Sirius asked as he saw Quality Quidditch Supplies.

"Sure," James said and they headed towards Quality Quidditch Supplies.

The two boys dragged the girls along into the shop. The shop was filled up and James even eyed some familiar faces from Hogwarts. He and Sirius made their way through a specific crowd towards the brooms.

"Look at that!" Sirius suddenly exclaimed.

James looked at what Sirius was pointing at. It was an all new broom from the Nimbus-series.

"It's the new Nimbus 1001!"

"Wow," Sirius sighed.

"Made of oak and streamlined…" James said out of breath as he red the sign next to it.

Lily pushed him slightly. "It's just a broom, James."

"A really good one…"

Joey made her way through the crowd and stood beside Sirius.

"Wow. The new Nimbus!" she sighed. "Mine is the 1000 model… I'd give everything to get one like that!"

"That's a good broom you have, Joey," James said. "Mine is the Comet 180… It's no good anymore."

James let his hand slide from the handle to the tail twigs. It really seemed like a good broom.

"James…" Sirius's voice came from somewhere that seemed very far away.

James removed his gaze from the broom and looked at Sirius instead. "Yeah?"

"You just seemed so lost in the broom. It's a long time since I have seen you give that gaze to anything other than Lily," Sirius said and looked from the broom to James.

James saw Lily blush uncontrollable and turn away. She pretended she had not heard and said something to Joey.

"Shut up, Padfoot," James said concerned while watching Lily before he looked at the broom again.

Sirius just grinned.

James studied the tail twigs and then sighed. "I could use a new broom…" he said slowly.

"Prongs, your broom is fine," Sirius said.

"It's getting old, and if I want to make the Quidditch team this year I need a better broom."

"James, you always make the Quidditch Team," Joey said. "I'm actually surprised you didn't become Captain."

"I'll buy it," James said, more to himself than anyone else.

Joey and Sirius sighed. Lily was still looking away. "If you have to," Sirius said and shrugged.

"Then you might have a chance of beating me in we race," Joey teased.

"You only win because you're smaller and not as heavy as me," James said. "And I don't see a Quidditch Captain badge on your chest either."

"I'm only in my third year of being keeper. You have been on the team since our second year. There's a bigger chance you would be chosen than me."

"Whatever you say," James said. "I'll just go pay for the broom."

He turned around and walked away from Joey and Sirius. Lily was dragged away behind him.

"Ouch!" she suddenly exclaimed and James turned around.

"Sorry."

"No, it wasn't you," Lily said and looked at the big man who had bumped into her.

"Okay…" James said and looked at her. "Sorry for what Sirius said before," he said before he could stop himself.

Lily blushed yet again, but this time she didn't look away.

"It's okay. I guess it was just a statement…" Lily said slowly, then added, "Or what?"

Now it was James's turn to blush a bit, and what was with the gaze Lily sent him when she asked? It didn't seem like it used to when they were talking about James's crush on her. James tried to read her gaze, it seemed… hopeful, was that it? Maybe he was just fooling himself because he was so desperate to find any sign of it.

"Lily, my feelings for you have not changed. I hope that someday you can accept that…" he said after some time.

"I have accepted it for years, it's just the way you tackle it… The way you ask and act. It's-… Do you get what I mean?" Lily sighed at last.

James nodded. "Yeah, I think I do."

So Lily was not mad at him because he liked her. That was something he could stick with. The only thing he had to be better at was the comments, which sometimes flew out of his mouth before he could stop himself. And he probably had to be nicer towards Snape too…

"Good…" Lily said slowly.

They were both quite for some seconds, just standing and look at each other.

"Sorry," James said. "For the way I have acted towards you the last few years…"

Lily smiled. "It's okay. The fact that you're saying sorry shows that you know it was wrong. You really have grown. And I'm sorry for being so mean to you."

Now it was James's turn to smile. "You're truly full of surprises, Lily Evans."

"So are you, James Potter," Lily grinned.

They stood for a couple of seconds again, just looking at each other, before Lily was the first to speak.

"Should we go get that broom of yours?"

"Sure," James grinned.

They both continued through the crowd and James paid for the broom and got a long package with him out of the store. Joey and Sirius stood outside waiting.

"What took you so long?" Sirius asked.

"We just started talking and then time flew past," James said.

Sirius looked at James a few seconds. "Okay," he said slowly.

Joey grinned. "Do we need anything more, or is that all?"

Lily looked at Joey for a second. "No, I don't think so."

"We go back then?" James asked.

They all nodded. "Great!" Sirius said and grabbed his and Joey's bags and disapparated back with Joey by his arm.

James and Lily looked at each other before they disapparated back.

When they apparated in the kitchen the first thing James saw were Joey's bags lying on the ground. He looked up and saw that Sirius had opened the fridge and was now looking inside for something edible.

As Sirius appeared from behind the fridge door he had a big chicken wing in one hand and half a cucumber in the other. He was chewing something James assumed was chicken because of the piece on his chin.

"Ew…" Lily said and gave Sirius another disgusted look.

"Whath?" Sirius asked and managed to spit some chicken right on the James's cheek.

James looked dissatisfied at Sirius with a sarcastic smile on his face. He slowly dried the chicken of his cheek.

"Thanks," he said and dried the chicken of his hand and onto his pants.

"You're welcome!" Sirius said and smiled.

He took a bite out of the cucumber and looked once again into the fridge for something to drink.

James shook his head and moved with Lily and Joey over to the table and sat down.

"Oh, and by the way…" Sirius said and closed the fridge. "Don't you think we should throw Wormtail a party soon? It was his birthday two weeks ago."

"Sure…" James said slowly. "But it has to be before my parents get home… And that will be in five days."

"Hmm… Friday?" Sirius asked.

James shrugged. "Yeah," he said and looked at Joey and Lily. "I guess you'll be there too?"

"I can see I have to," Lily said.

"I'll be there too. Can we invite Alice, Mary and Janine?" Joey asked, referring to three other girls in Gryffindor in their year.

"Yeah," Sirius said and smiled. "And more girls if you want to!"

James grinned and shook his head.


	10. Birthday with Unexpected Surprises

10 – Birthday party with unexpected surprises.

Friday at 8 o'clock in the evening Sirius had made the garden ready for the guests to arrive. They had only invited about fifteen people, all from Hogwarts. James had spent the last hour or two at the bathroom along with Joey and Lily. It surprised him how much time girls could spend in front of a mirror. But he had to admit, that it was not at all fruitless. Joey had made curls in Lily's hair, and Lily wore a red dress she had bought that day in the shopping centre. She looked nothing else but stunning, and James found himself staring at her on several occasions.

It knocked at the door and Joey opened. It was Peter and Remus. James stormed towards them with Lily running right behind him.

"Moony!" he greeted. "Wormtail! Happy Birthday again!"

"Hey. Thanks. What a ni-" Peter said, but stopped. "What happened to you two?" He pointed at James's and Lily's wrists.

James shrugged. "Sirius and Joey found it funny to link us together by a chain."

"I knew something was up when he said Lily and Joey would be there too," Remus grinned.

"You can't make it come off?" Peter asked stupidly.

"Sure, we just like to have it on," James said sarcastically.

"James…" Lily sighed.

"Of course we can't make it come off!"

"We just have to become friends and solve our problems," Lily continued.

"You'll never do that," Peter said.

Lily looked up at James and he looked down at her.

"I actually think we have done well so far," she said and smiled.

"Me too."

They followed Remus and Peter out in the garden where they said hello to Sirius. Half an hour later the rest of the guests had arrived. James and Lily had explained the chain-story about seven times to different people and Sirius had already begun to flirt with a girl named Charlie who was in Hufflepuff, fifth year. When James pointed that out to Lily and Joey they both sent him a nasty glance and turned to talk with Alice. James had nothing else to do but stand beside Lily and not interrupt in the girl's conversation.

"…So where is he?" Joey asked.

Alice blushed. "He's right over there, talking to Remus."

Lily and Joey turned to look at Remus, and James could not stop himself from turning around too to look at Alice's boyfriend.

"Frank Longbottom?" He asked and turned to Alice again.

Alice blushed even more and nodded.

"But he's like two years older than us, right?"

"Yeah…"

"And ho-"

Lily placed her elbow right between James's ribs. He gasped and stopped talking.

"Stop questioning her!" she said.

"Sorry," James said to Alice and rubbed his ribs.

"It's okay."

Sirius had somehow managed to get away from Charlie and started walking over to them all. He swung his arms over Lily and James' shoulders and popped his head in between them. "Here," he said and gave them both a drink. "Made it especially for you two."

James looked at Sirius a few seconds before taking a sip of it. It didn't taste of anything but juice.

"It's just juice," Sirius said as he saw James's expression. "Don't worry."

James didn't know if he believed Sirius or not, but found that he didn't care. They all went over to a table to sit, and the three girls started talking about boys and other stuff. Sirius and James were discussing new pranks to pull on Snape: a boy they really hated, and bullied. They called him Snivellus.

"We could paint his hair pink?" James suggested.

"Naah…" Sirius answered. "He could transform it back again… It has to be a bit more drastic."

"Or we could just hex him in front of everyone like we use to."

"Yeah. But we do that beside the other pranks. There's nothing new about that…"

"That's right. Maybe we should try that new spell of yours? The one we haven't tried… but it could be a bit risky as we don't know exactly what it does."

"Yea-"

"What are you talking about?" Joey interrupted as she popped up next to Sirius.

"School," James said quickly.

"Here," Sirius said and gave Joey a glass with juice in. "Drink. It's good."

Joey grabbed the glass and sipped it. She looked at Sirius a few seconds before she turned and walked away again.

Sirius kept giving everyone juice, and James was pretty sure he saw him putting something else into the drinks while the girls had their backs turned. Including Lily's. James was having an inner battle with himself about whether to tell them or not.

And sure enough, James was right. Around eleven two girls had fallen asleep on the couch in the living room, one of them was Joey. James was sure she would kill Sirius in the morning. Lily was a little drowsy and seemed a little blurred too.

"Lily, don't you think it's time to go to bed now?" he asked her.

"No!" Lily said. "I'm fine. Actually I want to dance."

She grabbed James's hands and pulled him out into the garden where music was playing.

"Lily, I-" James tried to protest, but Lily stopped him by putting her hand over his mouth.

"James, just shut up and dance," she said and started to dance.

James, as he was linked to Lily, could do nothing else than dance. James couldn't help but admire the way she danced, like one with the music, and yet did something to keep his eyes glued to her body. James knew that Lily would not appreciate it if she was sober, but now it seemed like she didn't care. Maybe she even enjoyed the attention he and some other boys gave her. No, he thought, Lily wasn't like that. He knew that. Yet he had to find something else to look at when Lily let her hands slide down the sides of her body.

'This is just too much,' he thought. 'How am I supposed to stay away from her when she acts like this?'

James danced with Lily for a few minutes, eyes mostly fixed just above her head, before he dragged her away and headed towards the pool because it was quiet and he needed some peace. He made sure the both of them were sitting safely on the edge with their toes touching the water.

They sat for a couple of minutes. Suddenly Lily let herself fall backwards into the grass and sighed. James looked at her. She lay peacefully in the grass with closed eyes and her hair out to all sides. The half-moon shinned and made her skin shine almost like pearl.

Slowly, Lily began to hum. Just a sweet little song James didn't know, but it sounded wonderful. She just lay there, peaceful and beautiful in the grass and hummed. James smiled and looked down into the water.

He sat like this for some minutes until someone dumped down next to him.

"What's up, Prongs?" Sirius asked and grinned at James.

James sighed. "What did you put in the drinks?" he asked.

"Nothing special." Sirius said and shrugged. "Juice, some of Rickety Ralph's Rum…"

"So you did put something in it! I knew it!"

"Funny, right?"

"No, look at Lily now," James said and nodded at Lily. "And Joey is sleeping inside the living room. I'm pretty sure she'll kill you in the morning."

"No, she won't," Sirius said very confident. "I'm too charming."

James couldn't hold a snort back. "Joey thinks you're disgusting…"

"Thanks mate."

"No problem. I just repeat what she said. Just make sure the house is completely clean before you go to bed. My parents could be home in an hour if they felt like it."

"Sure."

Both the boys were quiet for some time, Sirius studying the surface of the pool; James gazing at Lily who had stopped humming and turned to her one side with her hand under the head, she now looked suspiciously like a sleeping person.

"How's it going with Charlie?" James asked.

Sirius grinned before answering. "Fine… She thinks I'm a good kisser."

James showed the white of his eyes. "That's only because you've had a lot of practise."

"Couldn't I say the very same about you, dear Prongs?"

"Not as mush as you," James defended himself.

"Whatever," Sirius said.

He looked Lily who lay next to James. James looked down too; Lily was definitely sleeping now. Sirius slowly shook his head and looked at James.

"Don't you think it's time for you two to go bed now?" Sirius asked and James shrugged. "I mean, she looks pretty ready."

"Yeah. And whose fault is that?"

Sirius grinned. "Well, you have a pretty drunk girl next to you who has to sleep in the same bed as you and-"

"Don't even finish that thought!" James said in a very deadly voice. "You know I would never do such thing!"

"Of course not."

James sighed. "How could you even think I would-?"

"I didn't. Don't worry. Even I am not that bad."

James grinned "Well, I think we'll go to bed now. What time is it?"

"Something past twelve," Sirius said.

James nodded. He slowly picked up Lily and swung her left arm around his neck and started to walk up the lawn. Sirius followed.

The loud music seemed to wake up Lily. She opened her eyes and lifted her head.

"Dance?" she asked and smiled.

"No," James just said. "We're going to bed now."

"But James I-"

"Lily I doubt very much you even can stand up by yourself."

Lily sighed and let her head fall to rest on James's chest. James exchanged a glance with Sirius as they walked inside the house.

"You make sure everyone is out by two at the very latest!" James said as he started to walk up the stairs, still with Lily in his arms.

"Yeah," Sirius called and headed towards Charlie.

James headed towards his own room and pushed the door open with his back. He wondered for two seconds if he should put Lily in her night t-shirt, but decided it was safest not to.

James laid the almost sleeping Lily on one side of the bed next to himself. He stroked her hair away from her face and she looked up at him through some very sleepy eyes. She looked so beautiful despise her tiered eyes and the few blade of grass in her hair.

He smiled and wanted to kiss her forehead, just a light one like a good-night or friendly kiss. He knew she wouldn't mind, and she probably wouldn't remember it in the morning. But as he did is she tilted her head upwards so he couldn't and James looked at her a few seconds. Suddenly she lifted her head and kissed him. It was only a light kiss, both with slightly open mouth. James heart skipped a beat as their lips touched. This what was he had always wanted, but why did it feel so wrong? James knew Lily wasn't sober and he pushed away after a few seconds. He looked down at Lily who looked up at him. He couldn't read her gaze, but only a second after she turned so she lay on the left side with one hand under her head and closed eyes.

"Good night James," she mumbled.

James pushed himself down a bit and looked at her. "Good night," he said and turned to lie on his left side too.

He could tell Lily had fallen asleep immediately, but he lay awake for a long time before he fell asleep.


	11. Apart Again

11 – Apart again

James woke up the next morning to the sound of voices from downstairs. He wondered if Sirius hadn't gotten them all out last night as he had promised, or he had just gotten up already and Joey had come by. He opened his eyes and looked straight into Lily's hair. It smelled of grass and still had some in it.

Then he remembered what had happened. Lily had kissed him. It wasn't a dream. It was real. Now the question was: did Lily remember or was she too drunk? And it wasn't even him who had kissed her, she had definitely kissed him, but he had thought it was wrong and had pushed away and they had both gone to sleep.

First then James became aware of where his left hand was. It rested on Lily's hip. He quickly pulled it back and then it hit him.

The chain was gone. His left hand and Lily's right hand wasn't linked anymore. He slowly sat up and stretched. He really needed to talk to Sirius so he went down the stairs. But it wasn't Sirius or Joey who sat talking; it was his parents.

"Mom!" James said. "Dad!"

"James!" his mother exclaimed and got up.

James walked over and gave his mother a hug. "I've missed you so much!" he said.

"We missed you too." Evan said and got up to give his son a hug too.

"But where's Lily?" Karen asked.

"She's sleeping. Upstairs."

Both his parents raised their eyebrows and looked at him suspiciously.

"The chain was just removed. Last night," James quickly added.

His mother smiled. "Good. And how's Sirius?"

"He's fine. Also sleeping. How was China?"

"Buddha's, holy temples, rice. Nothing special." Evan said and shrugged.

James grinned. "Glad you had fun."

They were quiet for some seconds, before his mother moved and sat down again.

"You have been shopping for school, right?" she asked.

James nodded. "Yeah… Oh, I forgot to tell you. I was made head boy."

"You what?" Karen exclaimed.

"Umm… head boy," James said.

"Oh! I'm so proud of you!" she got up and gave James another hug. She sat down again and looked proudly at James.

His father leaned back and looked at James. "You're sure the letter wasn't sent to the wrong person?"

"Why does everyone keep asking that?!" James exclaimed.

Evan grinned, and James got that it was a joke.

"I'm proud of you," he said.

"Thanks Dad."

"You must have done something right…" Karen said and looked at James, thinking.

"I guess…" James mumbled. "So, what are the plans for the rest of the summer?" he asked to change to subject.

"There are only five days left so we haven't planned anything special."

"Okay," James said and shrugged.

Evan got up. "Well, I have to go to the office. There's a lot of work to catch up at."

Karen sighed. "You should at least try to relax a bit."

"We have just been to China, how more relaxed could I be?"

"Forget it…" Karen said and smiled. "Just go."

Evan kissed his wife on the cheek and walked out the door.

"I'll be in the garden if you need me," Karen said and got up too.

James sat back in the kitchen and looked at his hands, hoping Sirius would be up soon. And then, just like his wish had come true, someone came walking down the stairs. James looked up and saw Sirius enter. He stopped at the sight of James sitting in the kitchen all alone without Lily, then he grinned.

"So what happened after you went to bed?"

James looked puzzled at him. "Why do you ask?"

"The chain's gone! What happened?"

"Nothing. We went to sleep and when I woke up this morning it was gone."

Sirius looked disappointed. "Sure about that?"

James studied Sirius for some seconds before he nodded at him to come and sit down. Sirius moved over and sat down next to James.

"What?" he asked.

James looked towards the stairs before he whispered to Sirius. "Lily kissed me!"

"WHAT?" Sirius exclaimed.

"SHH!" James hushed.

"Okay. What?" Sirius asked again.

"Well," James began. "We went to bed I lay her there and she… she kind of kissed me. Just a little one. And then we went to sleep. But I don't know if she'll remember today."

Sirius nodded slowly. "So that's why the chain's gone!"

"What do you mean by that?" James asked suspiciously.

"The chain can only go away if something drastic happens… like a kiss! Something that shows your feelings towards each other really have changed."

James's jaw dropped. So he and Lily could only have separated if they kissed each other or something extreme.

"Okay…moving on. Next big question; will she remember? And if so, how will she react?"

Sirius shook his head slowly. "I don't know… ask her when she comes down if she remembers anything from last night."

James nodded slowly. "I'll do that…But what if sh-"

Suddenly the door burst open and Joey stepped inside. She didn't look happy and her hair was a mess. James doubted she had even combed it after she had woken up.

"What have you done, you idiot?!" she raged at Sirius.

"Who? Me?" Sirius just asked and looked around, like trying to find the person Joey was talking to.

"Yeah you! What was in those drinks?"

Sirius face dropped and the blood drained from his face. "Umm-"

"You're gonna die so badly, Black!" Joey said and walked towards Sirius.

Sirius jumped up and ran to the other side of the table. Joey stopped and looked at Sirius, Obviously wondering how she could get him from where she stood. James just sat there and looked fearfully from Joey to Sirius and back again.

"What are you so mad about, Joey? It was just rum," Sirius said.

"That was the most dishonest thing you have ever done!"

"I disagree," James said before he could stop himself.

"Yeah," Sirius said. "I have done worse things."

"Like cheating on four of his girlfr-"

"Prongs stop!" Sirius said in a deadly tone

"That doesn't make this better!" Joey said.

"But, Joey nothing happened!"

"Nothing happened?! Nothing happened?!" Joey yelled. "You call this nothing happened?"

And without further hesitation she pulled her top a bit up so you could see the words 'Sirius is way too hot' written over her stomach. James recognised it as Sirius's handwriting and began to laugh.

Seconds after Sirius did too. Joey let her top fall down again and looked at the two boys. James had fallen of his chair and was now rolling on the floor, laughing so hard he almost couldn't breathe. After some time Sirius slowly stopped laughing and straightened up.

"I had forgotten about that!" he said and began to laugh again.

As James stopped laughing and looked up at Joey she turned around.

"Then I guess there's no reason to show you this," she said and once again lifted up her top.

'All I want is Sirius' were the words on her back. Once again James and Sirius started to laugh. James had all forgotten about Sirius habit of writing on drunken people, and found it funny that Joey had been a victim. He straightened up and lifted his own t-shirt to check if Sirius had written on him too. And right he was. On his stomach was the words 'I love L'. James guessed Sirius was trying to write 'I love Lily Evans' or something, but James had pushed him away before he finished.

"Don't be so mad, Joey," Sirius said. "It's just a joke."

"Yeah? What would you say if I-"

"What's that noise for?"

Joey stopped talking and looked up towards the stairs. Lily was on the fourth step and looking

curiously at the others.

"Are we making noise?" James asked.

Lily nodded. "Yeah, and I have an enormous head-ache. I don't get why you're making so much noise this early in the morning. Our chain's gone. And why does it say 'Sirius is way to hot for me' up my left arm?"

James began to laugh again and Sirius started to explain it all to Lily.

After James had stopped laughing and Joey had hit Sirius they all sat peacefully at the table.

"So," James began and looked down at Lily's shoulder (not her eyes). "How much of last night do you remember?"

Lily shrugged. "Like something before ten?"

Sirius snorted and James sent him a gaze that told him to shut up. He had no idea what to do now. Lily didn't remember that she had kissed him. Now the question was if he should tell her or not.

"Okay," James said after some time. "But you were really not yourself…"

"What?" Lily asked. "I didn't do anything stupid, did I?"

James looked straight at Lily for short second. He could not read her gaze.

He shook his head. "No."

Sirius looked at James questioningly.

"What was that?" Lily asked as she saw Sirius' glance.

James moved a bit. "Well…" He said and sighed. "You… you just wanted to dance a lot. That's all."

Lily blushed. "Sorry if I ruined you night."

James shook his head. "No! Not at all."

"But something must have helped, because the chain is gone," Joey said.

Lily shrugged. "I guess," she said and looked at James.

James looked back at her, wondering what was going on behind those green eyes. She was studying him, and he could not read her gaze.

"So…" Lily said slowly. "I think I'll take a shower, if you don't mind. Can I still use yours, James?"

James nodded. "Sure. You know where everything is."

"Okay…" Lily said and turned to walk upstairs again.

"Oh, and one last thing," James said and she stopped. "My parents are home, so try to behave everyone."

Joey snorted. "It's not like you try to normally."

Lily grinned. "I'll think about that." She said and walked upstairs.

"Then I might go and say hello to them. Where are they?" Sirius asked and got up.

"My father's at work and my mother is out in the garden."

Sirius left and Joey and James sat back. There was silence for a couple of minutes.

"So…" Joey sighed and looked at James. "What really happened last night?" She asked straight out.

James looked from the table and up at Joey. He studied her a few seconds. "How did you know?"

"James. I have known you since we were four and I know you better than anyone else. Maybe even Sirius. I can see it in your eyes. So tell me now, what happened."

James sighed. He knew he could trust Joey not to tell Lily. He and Joey could talk about everything and anything. She had been the first one he had told when he was in love with Lily and she had accepted that. James knew she wouldn't tell Lily.

"Last night," James begun. "After you had fallen asleep. Lily and I went to bed too. Lily was pretty wasted, so I carried her up. And when I said good night to her… she kissed me."

Joey's jaw dropped. "What?" she whispered.

"Lily kissed me!" James said in a low voice.

"She didn't?!"

"Yes! Please help me Joey! I don't know what to do!"

Joey looked at James, thinking. She sighed and shook her head slowly.

"I don't know James… I guess I could talk to her and see if she remembers…"

"Would you do that?" James asked and looked begging at her.

"Of course I will." Joey sighed and got up.

"Thanks…" James called as Joey ran up the stairs.

James sat for five minutes and thought before Joey came down again. She slumped down next to James.

"So?" James asked straight away.

Joey shook her head. "Nah! She doesn't remember."

James sighed heavily and looked down.

"I'm sorry, James. I really am."

"It's just…" James said. "My biggest dream came true, and then she doesn't even remember or it was just some accident."

"James… I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure you at least have shown Lily who you are."

"Yeah… but that's just not good enough."

"Hmm… I know I have said this before… but I don't think two people would be better together than you and her. I don't know how to say this…but I'm sure you two will get together some day."

James couldn't hold a smile back. "Thanks, Joey."

"You're welcome…" she said and gave James a hug. "But I think I'll go and brush my hair or something. It's a mess, right?"

James nodded, grinning and Joey got up and left. He sat for some seconds before he got up and headed towards his own room up the stairs. He got to the door and knocked.

"Yeah?" Lily answered from the other side of the door.

"Can- can I come in?" he asked slowly.

"Sure," Lily said.

James slowly opened the door and poked his head inside. Lily stood facing mirror that hang on his closet, brushing her wet hair. She was wearing a little red top and a white skirt. James smiled, stepped inside and closed the door again. Neither of them said anything at first.

James sighed. "So…" he said. "This is it…"

Lily looked up at him in the mirror. "Yeah…" she nodded.

She stopped brushing her hair and turned to look at James. She smiled.

"Need help packing your stuff?" James asked her and nodded towards her suitcase.

"No," she said. "I can do that myself. You don't need to bother." She walked over and started to stuff her tops, skirts and pants into the suitcase.

"I don't know about you," James said, making Lily look up at him. "But I have had loads of fun this summer."

Lily smiled. "Surprisingly, I have too. And I must say; it's really changed my opinion of you."

James grinned. "I'm not as bad as you thought."

"No. And I have to admit that I'll miss you being around all the time…"

"You will?"

Lily nodded.

"Then it's luckily that we have a load of time to spend together as heads."

Lily had finished packing and now stood and looked at James. She smiled at him.

"Well… I better go over to Joey now," she said slowly.

James nodded. "Sure…"

Lily let her suitcase stand on the floor and walked over to James. "Thanks for a lovely summer, James," she said and to James's huge surprise, she gave him a hug. "You're nothing like I thought you were."

James held his arms around Lily's waist.

"Right back at ya! So we're friends now?"

They broke the hug and looked at each other for some time. Lily nodded and James smiled, but stopped as he saw Lily didn't.

"What's the matter?" he asked confused.

Lily took a deep breath. "James I remember what happened last night."

"Oh," was all James managed to say.

"I'm really sorry, I shouldn't have done that. And I… really it was more of a friends' kiss," she said, but didn't meet James eyes and her cheeks had gotten a grim red flush.

James nodded. "It's okay. I… It wasn't the thing I had hoped you'd to say after kissing me, but I understand."

Lily looked a bit shocked and slowly nodded. "I'm sorry, James. I'm really, really sorry. I know I shouldn't play with your feelings like that, and it was wrong of me."

"Yeah it was," he said honest. "But you don't need to think of that. It's my problem not yours."

"Okay…" Lily said slowly and nodded. "Can you please forgive me?"

James nodded. "Of course."

Lily sighed. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," he said.

She looked down. "Okay… I'm just curious… Why didn't you… you know, take advantage of it all?"

James was shocked but hid it at once. "Whoa, Lily," he mumbled. "I thought you knew me…"

"Well, I do know you… but every guy in your position would have taken advantage of me… and the fact that I was the one who kissed you."

"Well. Okay," he said. "The thought occurred briefly to me, but then I thought about it. You're a sweet girl Lily, and don't deserve to have something beautiful ruined because of some rum. You deserve better and I won't be the one to spoil that."

Lily looked up for the first time. "Thanks so much James!" she said and gave James another long and warm hug.

"It's nothing," James said and put his arms slowly around Lily.

"Can we be friends after this?" she asked into his shoulder.

"Yeah, it can't be too hard?"

Lily broke away. "Thanks."

James nodded. "And just so you know, you're a good kisser!" he grinned.

Lily laughed at this. "Well, thank you!"

They laughed a bit together, James was glad it wasn't as awkward as he had imagined. They stopped after a few minutes and just looked at each other.

"Well…" Lily said and walked over and picked up her suitcase and walked towards the door. "See you around, Potter," she said as she turned around.

"Bye, Evans," James grinned and watched as Lily walked out of his room.


	12. On Board on the Hogwarts Express

12 – On board at the Hogwarts Express.

The last five days before the beginning of school passed fast. James and Sirius spent most of their time together. Not because they didn't want to be with the girls, but James and Sirius enjoyed being able to fly together again. James was very excited because he hadn't yet had a chance to try out his new broom. The first time he rode it was like heaven. He was free and could do whatever he wanted to.

After have practically lived on the broom the last five days of the vacation James dragged Sirius inside and they begun to pack the evening before they were going back to Hogwarts. Surprisingly, James was finished within ten minutes. Everything he needed back at Hogwarts and a bit more was in the trunk.

He straightened up and looked towards Joey's room out the window. He saw her and Lily sitting on her bed, giggling over something he could not hear. Lily said something and Joey blushed. They talked some more and suddenly Lily was the one to blush.

James watched the girls some more before he walked downstairs to have dinner. Both James and Sirius were sent early to bed, but it was long past midnight before they fell asleep.

The next morning James woke up around nine thirty. He and Sirius were ready to leave for King's Cross around half an hour later.

"Mom, tell me this," James demanded as they dragged their luggage down stairs. "Why can't we just apparate? Sirius and I passed our apparition test months ago."

"Yes, but I like to see my son take of and I promised Lise that I would take Josephina and Lily to the station, because Josephina has not passed her test yet."

James sighed. "Fine then, but what car are we going in?"

"Your father has sent a ministry car. Actually, I think it is here so get in."

James and Sirius grabbed their trunks and walked outside. Joey and Lily were already outside and looked like they didn't know what to do. As James and Sirius headed towards the car the girls followed. James smiled as Lily sat next to James. She had her hair in two long plaits just like the first time James saw her over at Joey's that holiday, and James couldn't help but think she looked really cute. He was somehow reminded of a farm girl.

'A cute farm girl,' he corrected himself.

Five minutes later they were all settled comfortably in the back of the car and waited for it to go. Karen sat next to the driver and they drove.

The ride was long, but as they all talked all the way through it, it seemed shorter than it was and they arrived at King's Cross at a quarter to eleven. They all stepped out of the car and walked down to platforms 9 and 10. First the girls walked through the barrier, then the boys and at lastly, Karen.

James looked around and quickly spotted Remus a short way down, saying good bye to his parents.

James' father suddenly apparated next to him, clearly to say goodbye.

"Now…" Karen looked at the two boys with raised eyebrows. "Don't get yourself into trouble and no picking on first years."

"We never do," James said innocently.

"Do all your homework."

"We always do," Sirius smirked, sending James a glance.

"And I don't want any letters from Dumbledore this year," Karen sighed at last.

"That was only one time!"

"Twenty-eight," Evan said. "I've counted them. And saved them," he added with wink as Karen looked away.

Lily and Joey giggled. Karen gave James and Sirius a hug each and after that she turned to the girls.

"Keep an eye on them, will you?" she asked and gave them a hug too.

"Sure, Mrs Potter," Lily said and smiled.

Karen and Evan waved as the four of them boarded the Hogwarts Express.

Lily and Joey headed one way, and Sirius and James the other. They joined Remus in a compartment and minutes after, Peter joined them.

"I see you and Lily are not linked anymore," Remus commented as soon as he saw James.

"We solved our problems," James said, smiling.

At eleven o'clock the train started to move and Remus got up.

"Where're you going?" James asked.

"To the prefects' compartment," Remus replied.

James got up too. "Okay. Sorry. Forgot."

"You don't need to follow me up there."

"I see I forgot to tell you that I was made head boy," James grinned.

Both Remus and Peter dropped their jaws.

"What?" Peter just asked.

James nodded. "That's right boys," he said and pulled the badge up. "Now, are we going?"

Remus followed James up towards the compartment. Lily was already there.

"Hey Remus," she greeted. "And you Potter!"

"Hi Lily." Remus said.

"We back on last names, Evans?" James asked and winked.

"I just like to call you that," Lily said shortly, sending James a bright smile.

"Okay… Now, let's get started."

One and a half hours later they all left the compartment. James walked with Remus and Lily down towards their compartments.

"I think that went pretty well," James noticed. "Don't you think?"

Lily nodded. "Yeah. And we can look forward to a whole year of this."

"We surely can…" James said, thinking of all the time he and Lily had to spend together this year.

"My compartment's here. See you later," she said and waved to James and Remus as they continued.

The compartment's door smacked shut and Remus turned to James.

"It's great you and Lily have learned to get along," he said.

"It is…" James mumbled slowly. "And I can actually thank Padfoot for it all. Without him, Lily and I wouldn't have learned to know each other as we do now… It's great!"

"So, you'll ask her out again I assume?"

James shrugged. "I guess… Maybe she just sees me as a friend and it'll ruin it all," he said with a hint of sadness.

He didn't know if he was lying to himself or what. He just didn't feel like telling anyone other than Joey and Sirius about the kiss.

"I understand that…" Remus said with a nod.

They reached their compartment and James opened the door. He frowned slightly as he saw Sirius and Peter had the company of two girls.

"Hey," Sirius greeted them. "Finished already?"

"Yes," James said. "I see you didn't waste your time."

"Oh, sorry. This is Alexa and Michaela. Both sixth year, Ravenclaw."

"Hey, James," they both greeted him.

"Hey!" James said and studied the two girls.

Alexa reminded him of a girl-version of himself. She had thick pitch-black hair and brown eyes. She smiled warmly up at him. James could see she was not very tall. Michaela had blonde hair with waves, she was shorter than Alexa. Her eyes were a colour James could not describe. Like green and blue or a mix of them, they were glossy and dim at the same time. She smiled shyly up at James and when their eyes met she looked down and James was sure her eyes went a little lighter.

James grinned and sat down beside her. Remus walked inside and sat down across them next to Sirius.

"So did anything happen at the meeting?" Sirius asked.

"Not really," Remus said with a yawn. "Prongs and Lily gave some instructions, but that was all."

"Prongs?" Michaela asked and looked confused.

"That must be me," James said and grinned.

"You're head boy?" she gasped.

James could feel his face turn slightly pink as he nodded.

"Wow…" both the girls sighed.

"It's… it's nothing," he said in a voice that sounded nothing like his own.

"You must be really smart then," Alexa noticed.

"He is…" Sirius said and nodded.

Alexa giggled and Michaela studied James.

Half an hour later the two girls had not left. Remus and Peter were playing chess, and Sirius had suddenly grabbed Alexa's hand and dragged her outside. They had been gone now for about ten minutes.

"Where do you think they are?" Michaela asked.

"Some toilet or an empty compartment I think," James grinned.

Michaela looked surprised at James. "You really think so?"

"I don't know about Alexa, but I don't doubt that Sirius dragged her outside just to talk, if you know what I mean."

Michaela blushed. "Sorry."

"Why are you apologizing?" James asked confused; wow, this girl was careful.

"I…"

"Never mind," James grinned.

"Prongs?" Remus asked and made James look at him. "As head boy it's your duty to patrol outside the compartments sometimes. You now that, right?"

James had completely forgotten, but nodded as he remembered. "Yeah… I was actually on my way out now…"

He got up and looked down at Michaela. She looked back up at him.

"Maybe I should take you back to your own compartment if you don't want to be stuck here?" he asked politely.

"Sure." Michaela said. She got up and followed him outside.

"I'm sorry if you counted on spending the rest of the ride to Hogwarts with Alexa, but that's just the way Sirius is," James said as they got outside.

"Naah, I knew it would happen when we sat with him. She has had a crush on him for a year."

James grinned. "Okay. Then she must be very happy now."

"I think she is," Michaela grinned and looked at James.

They were both quiet as they looked at each other for some seconds. At last James cleared his throat.

"You do know they won't be together for very long, right?" he asked slowly.

Michaela nodded. "Yeah. I know how Sirius is…"

"Please don't hate him for that. It's just the way he is."

"Of course not. Alexa is quite similar to be honest."

James made a snort.

Suddenly two girls tumbled out of a compartment. They both giggled at some joke and hadn't seen James and Michaela. The first one walked right into James. He recognised them at once.

"Lily," he said and smiled to the girl who had walked into him. "Joey."

"Oh, hi James," Lily said.

She stepped away from James and looked at Michaela.

"And who are you?" she asked politely and smiled.

"Oh, Hi!" Michaela said and shook Lily's hand. "I'm Michaela."

"Nice to meet you. What are you two doing out here?"

Both Lily and Joey gave them suspicious glances.

"I was just walking Michaela back to her compartment because her friend is making out with Sirius somewhere."

"He just can't stay away from girls for more than two minutes, can he?" Joey asked disgusted.

"Nope!" James said and grinned.

"Joey, we have to go…" Lily said and looked around, like looking for someone.

"Sure," Joey said. "See you later."

James waved. When the two girls were out of sight Michaela turned to James.

"You still like her, don't you?"

"Who? Lily?" James asked and Michaela nodded. "It's not exactly the biggest secret is it?"

"No… It was just-"

"It's okay," James said. "She doesn't like me as I want her to. I have to move on sooner or later."

"I'm sorry." Michaela muttered.

"There's not really anything I can do," James shrugged.

"I guess… Well I have to go inside here. I guess I see you later?"

"Sure," James said and waved as he walked back towards his own compartment.

He walked fast and soon he saw Joey and Lily in front of him.

"Hey!" he called and ran up to them. "Wait!"

Both girls turned to look at James

"What was the hurry before?" he asked.

"We had things to do," Lily said shortly.

James looked at her and doubted it very much.

"Who was she?" Joey asked interested.

James shrugged. "Some girl Sirius had dragged to our compartment. I followed her back to her own compartment while I checked everything was ok around."

"Oh, I thought you had some kind of date," Joey said.

"Nope," James said. "Had enough of girls this summer."

He winked at Lily and the two girls grinned. Suddenly a door into the toilet opened and two people came outside, glued together by the lips. James grinned as he saw who they were.

"Alexa, you have a Sirius stuck on your face," he said flatly and they broke apart.

Alexa blushed and muttered a goodbye and Sirius stood and looked after her.

"I think I'm gonna be sick!" Joey said and held a hand over her mouth pretending she was being sick into an invisible bucket.

James and Lily grinned. Sirius just looked at Joey with raised eyebrows.

"Ha, ha, ha!" he said sarcastacaly. "You're so funny, Josephina."

"I know," Joey grinned.

"Oh, well," James said and grabbed Sirius's arm. "I think Padfoot here needs to get his pulse down before we get to Hogwarts. See you lovely ladies later."

They walked back to their compartment and spend the rest of the journey there.


	13. Rumuors and Tutoring Lessons

13 – Rumours and tutoring lessons.

Throughout the next week there was a lot of talk over the school. All of the older students were discussing the fact that James Potter and Lily Evans had finally learnt to get along. Some people said they were a couple, while others had for some mysterious reason concluded that they had an arranged marriage and had to get along.

When James heard these rumours for the first time he was with Lily, Joey and the three other Marauders. It was Remus who had brought this particular piece of news.

"That's just ridiculous," Lily said with a snort. "A couple? They must be out of their minds."

"I'm more concerned about the arranged marriage thing," James said emotionlessly.

Lily's comment had hurt; she still thought the idea of them dating was ridiculous.

"That could actually happen," Lily said.

"No. No one does that anymore," James replied.

Suddenly Sirius got up and they all looked at him.

"Sorry," he said. "I have to go. I have a date with Alexa."

"By the way," Joey called, making Sirius look at her, "What happened to that Charlie-girl?"

Sirius looked at her. "We're not together. That was just that evening."

Joey looked at him a few seconds. "You're a mean person, did you know that? And very disturbed."

"I have been told," he said and winked at Joey. "See you later."

Sirius turned and walked out. The others just looked after him.

"I just don't understand how he can live like that," Joey sighed.

"He's Sirius," Remus said.

"He just hasn't been in love," James said and gave Lily a quick glance she did not see. "Perhaps he'll change if he meets the right person."

"I doubt it," Joey mumbled.

"Me too," Lily backed Joey up.

"You'll see. Some day, I repeat, someday Sirius will fall in love…" James said and sat for a while and looked at the others. "Or something like that," he added and scratched his neck.

Lily and Joey just shook their heads.

Later that evening, James, Remus and Peter had left the Gryffindor tower to find something interesting to do. They were mainly looking for their favourite victim; Severus Snape, aka Snivellus.

"Where do you think he is?" Peter asked and looked around the corner.

"Just a sec…" James murmured and pulled a piece of parchment out from his robes. He gave it a soft tap with his wand, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

A map appeared on the parchment, and James started to search it. Remus and Peter looked at it over his shoulder.

"There!" Peter squealed and pointed.

"Good job, Wormtail," James said and headed down the corridor towards the library.

The three boys stopped outside the library. Just as they entered, Snape started heading for the door. James stopped in the middle of the doorway with Remus and Peter on either side of him. He put his arms out, wand in one hand and studied Snape as he edged closer. He had his eyes glued to a piece of paper and didn't see the boys before he was just a few feet away.

"Hey Snivellus," James said; eyes on Snape.

Snape looked up. "Move," he just said.

"Washed you hair this summer?" James grinned. "It hasn't got the same smell that it used to."

"Move," Snape repeated and drew his wand. He pointed it at James. "Now."

Three wands were pointing back at him at once.

"Does washing your hair help you get girls? You're still single, right?" James grinned.

"Funny you're the one to talk. As I heard it, you're the one who's running after a girl who doesn't even want you," Snape said scornfully with a funny glint in his eye.

James snarled. "You're a funny little shit, aren't you?"

"Get out of my way," Snape glared.

Neither James, Remus or Peter moved. Snape flicked his wand and Peter lay stunned on the ground. James flicked his own wand and Snape flew backwards into a bookshelf. As Snape slowly got up a book fell down on him and Remus and James laughed. James flicked his wand once more and the entire bookcase fell down on him. They laughed even harder.

Suddenly the librarian came running from the other side of the room.

"What is that noise?" she asked angrily and gasped when she saw Snape. "What are you doing, boy?!"

James and Remus lifted Peter from the ground and they crept out of sight, sniggering. Remus muttered the counter-curse and Peter woke up. The three boys looked into the library and saw Snape begin to clean up after the mess James had caused. They grinned at each other and headed up the stairs again.

As they rounded a corner a girl came past walking with a stack of books. Her head poked out from the one side of them so she could see where she was walking. James grinned as he saw who it was.

"Hey Michaela."

"James! Hi!" she said.

"Need any help with the books?"

"No it's okay. It's not a long way to the library."

James exchanged glances with Remus and Peter and they all began to laugh.

"You might want to go a bit later," James said after some time.

"Why is that?"

"Well. Snivellus made a big mess down there and Madam Pince is not too happy right now."

Michaela raised her eyebrows, her gaze shifting from James to Remus to Peter and then back to James, only lingering on each person a second or so. "You did something, right?"

"Maybe…" James grinned.

She showed the white of her eyes. "You just can't leave him alone, can you?" she asked, smiling.

James pretended to think for a minute. "Nope."

"Didn't think so."

James smiled. "You're sure you don't need help with the books?"

"If you really want to help, you can."

James grinned and grabbed the most of the books. "See you back at Gryffindor tower," he said to Remus and Peter and headed towards the library with Michaela.

When they got to the library Snape was gone and the books were back on the bookshelf. James glanced at the books as he dumped them down in a box, where they would be returned to their rightful places by Madam Pince.

"What do you need those for?" James asked and picked up '_Intermediate Transfiguration'_. "It's for third years."

Michaela blushed, looking down. "I'm behind in Transfiguration… McGonagall has said I needed to catch up otherwise she would give me a tutor."

"But you must have earned an 'E' in your OWLs otherwise she wouldn't have you in the class. How come you're so far behind?"

"Umm… I only got an 'A' – nearly an 'E' though – but I made a deal with her and this is a part of it. I have a test at the end of October where I have to get an 'E' otherwise she won't let me continue Transfiguration."

"Oh…" James said. "I'm sorry."

"So am I," Michaela sighed, eyes on the books. "I'm not sure I'll be able to do it."

Suddenly a thought hit James. "Perhaps… if you want to… I could help you?" he asked a bit awkwardly.

Michaela lightened up. "You really would that?"

"Yeah. Of course. I don't want you to fail."

"Oh, James that's so sweet of you! Thank you so much!"

"Don't thank me yet. Thank me when you come back from that test with an 'O'," James winked.

"I will," Michaela smiled and took the book from James and put it into the box.

James smiled and walked out of the library with Michaela. James walked her back to the Ravenclaw tower and they agreed to have their first lesson on Friday.

On Friday, at a quarter to seven, James grabbed his transfiguration book and wand, and was on his way out of the tower.

"Where're you going?" a voice asked from behind.

James turned around and saw Lily. She had just come down from the girls' dorm, looking beautiful as always.

"The library," James said shortly and shrugged.

"What's happening down there?" she asked and frowned.

"A tutoring lesson. Sorry, Lily… I have to go now. Otherwise I'll be late."

"It's okay. See you." She gave him a smile and turned to sit down in a chair with a book in her hand.

James waved and walked out the portrait hole. He was down in the library in five minutes and sat down at a table, waiting for Michaela. She arrived a few minutes later. She quickly spotted James in the corner and walked over, sitting down on the table across of him. James noticed she looked a bit nervous.

"You're not nervous are you?" he asked her.

Michaela shook her head. "No… well a little," she added as James looked at her with raised eyebrows.

"It's okay. Should we get started?"

Michaela nodded. "Yes."

"Okay… I assume you have begun to learn non-verbal spells, right?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. First; try to turn this book into a turtle. Non-verbally."

Michaela nodded and tried. The book did still looked the same.

"Hmm. Watch," James said and turned the book into a turtle. "Did you see how I moved my wand?"

"Yes."

"Try to do that," James said and turned the turtle back.

Michaela tried once more, but again nothing happened. James got up and walked over behind her.

"You're doing it a bit wrong," he said and put his hand around hers. "Move it like this."

He moved her hand and wand around in a smaller circle and let go again.

"Try again."

Michaela did as she was told and the book turned into a turtle. She leaned a bit forward and looked at the turtle. "It's not supposed to say 'written by Henry Picket' is it?"

James leaned in over Michaela and the table, and looked at the turtle. He couldn't stop himself from laughing.

"No!"

"It's not funny!"

"Yes, and at least you did it."

Michaela blushed. "Thanks to you."

James moved over and sat down at his chair again. They looked at each other for a short second before Michaela looked away again. James nodded at the turtle.

"Now, try to turn it back again."

Michaela did as she was told. The book turned perfectly back and she smiled.

"Great!" James grinned and clapped his hands together. "Turn it into a turtle again… Just without the writing on the shell."

Michaela grinned and tried once more. This time the turtle was almost perfect.

"That's an improvement." James said and looked at the turtle.

This time there was no writing, but the turtle still looked at bit rectangular.

Michaela leaned a bit forward too and looked down. She smiled. James looked up at her. She actually had a sweet smile. As she looked up at James, he noticed that her blue-green eyes changed into a more navy colour and they almost lit up. They were really pretty.

'Wait a second!' a little voice inside of James exclaimed. 'What happened to Lily and her eyes?'

'She only likes me as a friend.'

'Then why would she kiss me?'

'…'

Michaela cleared her throat and leaned back again. She picked up her wand and books.

"I have to go now," she said and looked down.

"Err… We have only been here for a quarter of an hour," James said stunned.

"Yeah. I need rest."

"Okay… Monday next time?"

"Sure," she said and hurried out of the library.

James sat back and looked after her, wondering what had just happened. Ten minutes later he got up and headed towards the Gryffindor tower.

Inside the tower Sirius, Remus and Peter were talking to Lily and Joey. Sirius looked up as James entered.

"She ran away from you?" he grinned.

"Shut up," James said miserably.

"Who?" Joey asked. "A girl?"

James nodded. "I was helping her with some transfiguration."

"Who is it?" Lily asked.

"Michaela."

"Michaela? Michaela Staines? The girl you walked with on the train? Her with the eyes?" Joey asked.

James was stunned and just nodded slowly at Joey. "What… what did you mean with the eyes?"

Lily sighed. "Everyone knows, James."

"Knows what?"

Lily and Joey exchanged glances before they leaned forwards, ready to tell James something.

"You have noticed that there's something with her eyes, right?" Lily asked.

James nodded. "They're like blue and green at the same time and indescribable."

"Aha. They have always been like that. She was born with the-"

"Yeah, yeah." James interrupted. "But what's so special about them?"

Lily and Joey exchanged glances once more. James looked confused from the one to the other.

"They can more than just look pretty. June from Ravenclaw has said that they reflect her feelings. Can change into every possible colour of green and blue. Sometimes even purple, but that's rare." Joey said.

"And that if she keeps eye contact too long time with another person, she starts to feel their feelings and hear their thoughts," Lily continued seriously.

"What?" James asked with a snort. He couldn't stop himself form grinning. "That's ridiculous!"

"Don't you believe us?" Joey asked with a hard look.

"I'm sorry, but it just seems a bit strange, doesn't it?"

Sirius and Remus laughed loud. Lily and Joey sent them dirty glance before they turned back to James.

"Yeah, but it's true."

"Can you prove it?"

Joey sighed. "No… she usually doesn't keep eye contact too long."

"Especially not with people she doesn't know."

"That's why she seems very shy."

"Some people are even afraid of her."

James looked at the two girls with wide eyes. It was scary how they complemented each other while telling a story. They reminded him of himself and Sirius.

"I understand that, if you talk about her like that to everyone," he said. "That's enough to scare me away from you."

"We don't!" Joey said.

"We just wanted to tell you," Lily continued.

"You're crazy." James said and got up. "I'll talk to her on Monday if I don't see her before."

"Okay… oh, and James?" Lily called.

"Yeah?"

"Remember the prefect's meeting tomorrow. It was embarrassing enough you forgot Wednesday."

James blushed slightly. "Sorry. I'll be there! Promise!"


	14. More Tutoring Lessons

14 – More tutoring lessons.

James did not see Michaela before Monday, when he was on his way to class, and didn't have much time. He watched as she talked to Alexa, waiting outside the Charms classroom. He was on the way to Transfiguration. He knew McGonagall would be mad if he was late, but he had to talk to her. He stopped and Sirius looked back at him.

"What's up, Prongs?" he asked.

"Just go. Tell McGonagall I'll be there in two minutes," James muttered and turned around, "Michaela?" he called over the heads of a group of sixth years.

She turned around and looked at him. She looked scared and glad at the same time. "Yes?" she asked with a small voice.

James made his way through the crowd and stopped in front of Michaela, Alexa and two other girls from Ravenclaw.

"Can I have a word?"

Some of the girls started to giggle, but Michaela just nodded. They walked down the corridor until they were out of earshot of the other students.

"What is it?" she asked.

"I…" James stopped as he had no idea what to say. "Is… Is it true? That thing with your eyes?"

He felt slightly bad about being so forward, but it had really been nagging him the whole weekend. Michaela looked down and nodded slowly, a faint blush creeping up her cheeks. James reached out and lifted her head up so she looked at him.

"You're not embarrassed about it, are you?" he asked her.

She looked away and James could see her eyes were now a vibrant green, maybe even a little yellow.

"You don't have to be."

She looked up at him again. "I heard what you thought in the library. That thing with Lily and also that about my eyes."

James looked at her a few seconds. "Umm... you won't tell anyone, will you?"

"About her kissing you?"

James nodded. "Yeah…"

"Why not?"

"Err… She was drunk, and it was a mistake," James said quickly, feeling his mood fall.

Now Michaela nodded. "I'm sorry. It was my fault. I know what happens-"

"You don't have to apologize," James said quickly, holding up a hand. "No one should apologize for having eye contact."

Michaela smiled and looked from James shoulder to his eyes. As James looked her eyes slowly turned from the green over to a deep blue and then it began to get a slight shade of purple in it. James didn't think her eyes were scary at all. It was fascinating and he really liked them. Then he remembered that Michaela could probably hear that and he broke the eye contact.

"Well… I should get going now," he said. "Transfiguration. We're still up for tonight, right?"

Michaela nodded. "Yeah."

They walked back and James continued to the Transfiguration classroom. He noticed that her eyes still looked both blue and purple as he said goodbye to her.

"You're late, Potter," McGonagall said as he entered the classroom.

"Sorry, Professor," James said quickly and walked over and sat beside Sirius. "I had things to fix."

McGonagall raised her eyebrow as she looked at her, obviously wondering if he had made trouble.  
"Five points from Gryffindor and don't let it happen again."

She began the class and James studied the backs of Lily and Joey a couple of seconds before he leaned forward.

"Joey…" he whispered. "Joey!"

She turned around. Lily looked at Joey and turned around too.

"Can you tell me what it means when Michaela's eyes turn into the different colours?"

"Hmm…" Joey murmured, wondering. "They're green normally, but when she's happy they're blue. And the more blue they are the happier is she…"

"What about the purple?"

"I don't know." She shrugged. "We haven't studied her or anything. It's all gossip and stuff like that."

"Okay… what about yellow?" he asked.

"I don't know, James…" she said with a sigh.

"Oh, you're no good!" James said and leaned back.

Joey and Lily turned around again.

The rest of the day flew past and then again, it was seven and James headed down towards the library. This time Michaela was there before him. He sat down across from her and smiled.

"Ready?" he asked.

She nodded. "Where to begin?"

James found the book from last time. "I still need to see the perfect turtle I know you can do," he said and winked.

Michaela smiled and grabbed her wand. The first attempt didn't work at all. The second was better. James showed her the wand movement again, and on the third try she did it.

"That's what I call a perfect turtle," James said and smiled.

Michaela smiled at him. "Thanks. What's next?"

"Hmm… Ever tried to change your eyebrows?" he grinned.

She shook her head and James showed how to do it. She grinned as James suddenly had purple eyebrows.

"You try now." James said and nodded at her wand that lay on the table.

He quickly transformed his own back and looked as Michaela grabbed the wand and tried. One eyebrow changed colour into a faint yellow for a few seconds but then turned back.

"You need to concentrate a little harder," James said. "You need to think about what you want to do. Imagine how it's going to look."

Michaela closed her eyes, concentrating. She opened them and tried once more. This time they changed into a dark blue colour which matched her eyes. James leant over the table a bit and studied them. He let his finger run over them, checking they looked alright.

"It looks great!" he said and smiled.

His gaze fell from her eyebrows to her eyes; they were blue at the moment. He had never seen such eyes. There was only one word for them, and it was amazing. Nothing he had ever seen could match them. Well, maybe except from Lily's, but hers were beautiful in another way. Not like Michaela's.

Suddenly Michaela looked down and her eyes turned slowly green.

"Sorry," James said. "I didn't mean to-"

"No! It's okay. I'm just not used to be compared to other girls like that… I shouldn't be allowed to have eye contact with anyone," she ended miserably with a faint groan.

"Don't say that."

They were both silent for some seconds. At last James cleared his throat.

"Look," he said slowly. "I'm sorry for embarrassing you over and over again by thinking of Lily. But I'm trying to move on, and I really think your helping me with that."

"What?" Michaela asked, clearly shocked, but James could see a smile creeping onto her face.

"Well… since I've met you I haven't thought about Lily nearly as much as I used to. You do something to me."

Michaela had opened her mouth slightly and just looked at James blankly. As the seconds passed James hoped that she would say something or at least close her mouth.

"I-I really don't know what to say, James," she said. "I'm very flattered."

"I hope I didn't make this too awkward." He smiled and let his hand run through his hair.

Michaela shook her head. "No. I don't mind those thoughts," she blushed.

"So, we can at least try to be friends?" James asked.

"Yeah…"

They both got up and gave each other a hug.

"You're really small," James said into her hair. "Did you know that?"

"I do now," she grinned.

They broke apart and sat down again.

James looked at Michaela and couldn't help but snort.

"What?" she asked.

"Your eyebrows are still blue," James grinned.

Michaela looked very embarrassed and grabbed her wand from the table. She swished it a couple of times, but they didn't change colour back. At last she put the wand down again and sighed.

"Will you please help me?"

"Of course," he grinned and turned them back.

"Thanks," she said.

"You're welcome." James looked at his watch. "Should we call it a day?"

Michaela nodded. "Sure."

"Okay. And try to practice. It really helps."

Michaela nodded and got up. James followed her outside and they walked along the corridors together before Michaela turned to go towards the Ravenclaw tower and James towards the Gryffindor tower.

Through the next couple of weeks James tutored Michaela every Monday, Wednesday and Friday night. She was getting better all the time, but sometimes she had problems with concentration, and so made a few mistakes while transfiguring objects.

James and Lily had a few meetings to set up one thing and discuss another thing, and evaluate a third thing. They made a new plan for patrolling; luckily James did it with Remus so there was nothing to worry about.

James and Sirius earned five detentions and lost Gryffindor 60 points. Remus and Peter had joined them in three of the five detentions.

"You know," James said one day as they were cleaning the dungeons to get rid of mould, dirt and other disgusting things, "It would make much more sense if the Slytherins did this. It's them who live down here, not us."

"I totally agree," Sirius said and scraped some gum of a wall. "They act like dirt, look like dirt and smell like dirt. Let them live among dirt."

"Yeah, but we were chosen," Remus said. "I just don't get why we can't use magic. It would take about two seconds."

"Yeah," James mumbled, "But it's part of the punishment for giving that Geller boy four arms. I just don't get it. It looks much cooler and now he stands a chance of catching the snitch in the next Quidditch game."

"Yeah, but McGonagall removed them."

Sirius grinned and shook his head. "McMillan will crush him."

"AH!" Peter said from behind.

James and Sirius turned just as Peter finally managed to remove something from the wall, which promptly exploded. It looked like a type of boil. He was soaked in a green and extremely fowl smelling juice.

James and Sirius started to roar in laughter. Remus turned around and saw Peter and began to laugh too. The three boys rolled on the floor for five minutes before James finally managed to stand up again. Unfortunately, Peter was sitting right in front of him, covered in a smelly, green juice, and James fell into another fit of laughter

At last Remus managed to stop laughing and help Peter up. He couldn't remove the juice though; their wands had been taken.

"Thanks," Peter mumbled, wiping juice of his face.

The boys continued the cleaning for a quarter of an hour and McGonagall came to see how they were doing. James looked up as he heard her enter.

"What's that smell?" she asked and wrinkled her nose.

"A mould boil," James said without looking up.

"A what?" she asked.

James looked up. "Some boil exploded. I'm pretty sure that's what smells," he said and shrugged. "It's still on Peter."

McGonagall looked at Peter before she waved her wand at him and the juice was removed. "Okay. You can leave at nine. That's in ten minutes. You're wands will be given to you in your first lesson tomorrow." she said and turned and walked away.

"Alright!" Sirius said and clapped James' hand.

"That's the shortest detention she has ever given us!" Peter said.

"Yeah, but we're wandless until tomorrow!" Remus said. "I had hoped to practise some Charms…"

"Relax, Moony," James grinned. "It's a good excuse for not doing your homework…"

They all worked until nine, when they left the dungeon almost as clean as it was supposed to be.


	15. Her

15 – Her

It was one of the last days of October and the Marauders were sitting under a tree outside, enjoying the last warm day of the year. Remus was reading as the three others chatted. Lily and Joey came walking down the lawn and joined them; Joey looking slightly displeased.

"So, Sirius," Joey said and looked at him. "Who are you making out with today?"

Joey had been very mean and sarcastic towards Sirius since she had found him in a classroom with a fifth year Gryffindor girl, and then seeing him with Alexa the next day.

"No one," he said and smiled at her. "Unless you have time right now?"

He winked as he said the last thing, and James couldn't help but smile.

"Ew! I would rather kiss a slug."

"That can easily be arranged," James said very seriously.

"Ha, ha, ha," Joey said sarcastically.

She sat down in the grass next to James, with Lily on her other side.

"What are you up to out here?" Lily asked and looked around. "Everyone's inside."

"Prongs had to get out," Remus said without taking his eyes of his book. "He was too nervous to be inside."

"Why?" Joey asked.

"Well…" James said slowly. "Michaela is taking her test in Transfiguration. She has to get at least an 'E' to pass."

"Ohh…" she muttered. "That's tough."

"Mmm," James mumbled while looking up towards the castle; Michaela had promised to tell him how she did as soon as possible.

"Relax, Prongs!" Sirius sighed and threw some grass at him. "She'll do fine!"

James picked some grass up and threw it back at Sirius. "Don't throw grass at me!" he said.

"I do what I want!" Sirius said and threw some grass at James again.

"You're so dead," James said and jumped up.

He ran over to Sirius and threw himself at him.

"AH!" Sirius exclaimed and turned to get away.

James landed on the back of Sirius. He forced Sirius face down into the ground and laughed.

"There's the grass! Now eat it, Black!"

Sirius managed to turn and pushed James off him. For the next five minutes James and Sirius rolled around in the grass and got dirtier for each second. The four others just looked at them as they were crazy.

At last Remus got up and tried to separate them, but Sirius dragged him in too and then it was suddenly three boys who were rolling around on the ground. Sirius was trying to drag Remus into the dirt, while James trying to squash some into Sirius's hair. Then Remus got free and tried to push James down until Sirius pushed him away because he wanted to attack James and Remus ran into Sirius in an attempt to get him down in the dirt.

At last James managed to get away from Sirius's grip, with a little help from Remus, and got up. He brushed some grass of his robes and looked up as he could hear someone calling.

"James!"

It was Michaela and she came running very fast towards him.

"I passed! I got an 'O'!" she shouted.

"You did?"

"Yeah!"

James ran up to her and gave her a hug. They broke quickly and James looked at her eyes. He could now clearly see that her eyes were purple with the little mix of blue in them.

And then, without really realising what he was doing, he kissed her. First there was not much response, but then she kissed him back and deepened the kiss. They stood kissing for a few minutes until they broke apart. James looked Michaela deep in her eyes, they were still both purple and blue, and for the first time he only thought of her, not Lily. He was not afraid that she would hear his thoughts, he trusted her.

She broke the eye contact and looked at his hair.

"You have grass all over you," she grinned and removed some grass from his hair.

"Sirius," James said, by way of a explanation.

He lowered his head and kissed her again.

They stood and just kissed for about five minutes before James remembered that all of his friends were just beside them and he broke apart.

"Um, guys," he said and grinned. "This is Michaela, in case you don't know."

"Hey," they all greeted.

Then James realised that someone was missing. "Where's Lily?" he asked Joey.

"She had some work she needed to be done," Joey said and looked concerned towards the castle.

James turned around and saw the back of Lily enter the castle, running. He shrugged and turned to Michaela.

"A walk?" he asked.

"Sure," she said and smiled.

James grabbed her hand and they walked towards the Quidditch pitch. At first they didn't say anything, James enjoyed the lovely feeling in his stomach he had.

"You got to tell what you did in there," James said as they entered the Quidditch pitch.

Michaela grinned. "I just did what you told me to do. Concentrate."

"I knew you'd do well," James said and leaned down to kiss her cheek.

"Thank you so much," she said.

"It was all you." They slowly began to move towards the top seats. "So tell me," James said and looked down at her. "What did you have to do?"

"Well," Michaela said and sat down on one of the seats on the top. "I had to turn a chair into a dog and turn my own hair pink and lots of other things."

"How did it look?" James grinned.

"Not good," she answered and shoved his upper arm.

"I'd have liked to have seen it."

"Yes, but you never will."

"I can just turn it pink, you know."

James winked and drew his wand. Michaela showed the white of her eyes as James waved the wand in front of her face.

"Yeah, but you won't."

"Sure about that?"

"Yeah. You care too much about me."

They both looked over the Quidditch pitch in silence. James slowly took hold of Michaela's hand. He could see her smile out of the corner of his eye. He sighed.

"Michaela?" He asked hesitating.

"Yeah?" she asked and looked at him.

He looked back at her. "Can I ask you a question?"

Michaela smiled. "They're blue when I'm glad, that sickening yellow-green colour if I'm embarrassed or feel uncomfortable, green is the neutral colour and they're almost purple when I'm really happy or in love," she said quickly. "Is that all?"

James was stunned. How could she know what he wanted to ask about?

"Ho- how did-?" he only managed to stutter before she interrupted him.

"Everyone asks," she said and shrugged. "I get used to it. It's okay."

James, who had been on the way to blush, smiled a bit.

"You're really special, Michaela – can I call you Mika?"

Michaela grinned and showed the white of her eyes. "Only you. And thank you. No one has ever said that to me."

"That you're special?" he asked, making her nod. "Well you are."

Michaela smiled, but then it disappeared again as she looked at James.

"Can I ask you something?"

James nodded.

"What about Lily? What's her role in this?"

James studied Michaela some seconds. "I won't lie to you. It has never been my style," he said slowly and sighed. "I can't say I have forgotten all about her, but I can say that you help me forget her at times when we're together. As I have said before; you do something to me."

Michaela smiled a bit again. "I guess that's a compliment."

"It is," James said and kissed her. "It is."

James and Michaela sat together for the next hour and looked out over the Quidditch pitch. At last as the sun began to set, James got up and offered Michaela his hand. She took it and they walked down together and went inside the castle.

James left Michaela at the entrance to Ravenclaw common room. He headed towards the Gryffindor common room and found Sirius, Remus and Peter sit in there.

"Hey!" Sirius grinned as he came over to them and sat down.

"Hi…" James just said.

"So, how's Michaela?" Remus asked.

James smiled. "Great…" he just said.

"You're a couple now?" Peter asked.

James shrugged. "I think."

"How does she kiss?" Sirius grinned mischievously.

James looked at Sirius with raised eyebrows.

"I don't have to answer your questions. I'm going to bed," James said and got up.

"It's only seven thirty!"

"Whatever!" James called as he started to climb the stairs to boys' dorm.

As James sat in the dorm alone and looked out of the window he thought and it hit him. He had finally given up Lily and started to date another person. How could he? After everything that had happened that summer he would never have thought he would be able to do what he had just done. And yet he was in love, and it was not in Lily. Well, something in the back of his mind did still like her and wanted to be with her, but he wasn't and it was time for him to realise that it would never happen.

Late in the night James fell in a very restless sleep. He dreamt that he and Michaela were standing alone in a corridor, kissing. But then Lily came around the corner and started to cry. 'I thought you loved me!' She yelled and fell to the floor. James ran over to her, but she wasn't breathing.

He woke with a start at five in the morning, with sweat covering his face. He turned onto his other side, but couldn't sleep again. At last, when it was something past seven, he got up.

He entered the great hall and saw that it was almost empty. He had all forgotten it was Saturday and everyone was sleeping. He quickly walked over and sat down at the Gryffindor table so he could see the Ravenclaw table. Michaela had not yet arrived.

When James had sat at the table for ten minutes, Joey came walking into the great hall and joined James at the table.

"Morning," James greeted her.

"Morning," she said and sat down across of James.

"Um… Where's Lily?" James asked and ate some of his bread.

Joey reached for some eggs. "She doesn't feel well."

"Okay. It's not serious is it?"

"No…" Joey said and began to eat her eggs and bacon. "But you probably won't see her this day."

"Uh!" James said as he saw Michaela. "There's Mika! Should I go say hey?"

"'Mika'?" Joey asked and raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. It's shorter than Michaela. Again: Should I go say hey?"

"Why are you asking me? You don't usually need advice on girls."

James shrugged and got up. He looked at Michaela; she had not yet seen him. He walked quickly over to her. She first saw him when he started to move down the Ravenclaw table. She blushed slightly as James sat down next to her and kissed her cheek. The two girls sitting on the other side of the table began to giggle.

"Morning," James said.

"Morning," she said.

"Who are you friends?" James asked as the two girls kept giggling.

"Jane and Katharina." Michaela said and smiled.

"Hey," James smiled. "I'm James."

"Yeah," said the girl, Jane. "We know."

"Oh. Okay."

"Katharina spent a lot of time with your friend, Sirius, last year."

James grinned. "Alright, then… Umm, Mika, do you want to meet up sometime?"

Michaela nodded. "Yeah…"

"Okay… See you later then," James said and got up.

"But we haven't arranged anything."

"Don't worry. I'll find you." James said and thought of the marauders' map.


	16. Sirius’ Not So Secret Secret

16 – Sirius' not so secret secret

Having a girlfriend was new to James. At least, having a girlfriend who he did not compare to Lily was. Therefore, he was very protective towards Michaela through the first couple of days. He wouldn't let her out of his sight unless when she had to go to bed or to the bathroom. So, when Monday arrived, he hadn't had time to do his homework… again.

"So," McGonagall said as she saw James's latest transfiguration. "What's this supposed to look like?"

James looked down at his table, which should have been a pig by now. "A pig?" he tried.

McGonagall studied the thing for some seconds. James had to admit to himself that a brown pig with knots instead of ears and square legs could not be counted in as a successful transfiguration.

"What have you done this weekend that was more important than homework, Potter?"

"Girls and stuff like that," James said quickly.

McGonagall raised one of her eyebrows. "For tomorrow, Potter, practice."

James nodded. McGonagall walked away and Joey looked at James. "You should have practiced," she said.

"Ah, homework's for losers," James said and shrugged.

"I do my homework," Joey said quickly, "and so do Lily and Remus. It's just you and Sirius who are too immature to take school seriously."

Joey quickly turned their table-pig into a table again. James concentrated once more and turned it into a – this time only brown – pig. He and Joey shared a table through the lesson because Sirius skipped it because of Alexa, and Lily was still ill. James asked if she should go see Madam Pomfrey, but Joey said that it wasn't necessary, Lily would be back in class before James could say Quidditch.

"Tell her I miss her," he said as he walked towards Care of Magical Creatures with Sirius.

"I will…" Joey said and walked towards Gryffindor tower instead. "But I'm not sure it will help her to get better."

And two days went by before James saw Lily again.

It was Wednesday morning and he and the rest of the Marauders sat and ate breakfast in the Great Hall when Lily and Joey entered. Lily sure did look as having been ill. She looked thinner and she was still a bit pale. Her eyes didn't even shine when she sat down next to Joey.

"Smile, Lily," James said as she sat down. "Then you'll get a smile back."

"Yeah, I've tried that crap… It doesn't work." Lily said and began to eat.

"Alright…" James said, and then he mumbled to Sirius, "I guess it's that time of the month."

Sirius snorted into his cornflakes and both Joey and Lily glared at them and they stopped grinning.

"Okay, sorry," James muttered and looked down.

"That's better," Joey said and smiled at him.

James looked down and saw Peter with the corner of his eye. He was sniggering. James kicked him under the table and he stopped.

"Going to class?" James asked and got up.

Sirius and Remus looked at him as if he had gone mad. "Huh?" Sirius asked.

"What?" James asked back.

"There's still ten minutes left before class."

"So?"

"I'll go." Joey said and got up. "Are you coming Lily?"

Lily nodded and got up. "Sure."

The three of them walked out of the Great Hall and up towards the Charms corridor. As they had made the top of the stairs Joey suddenly stopped.

"Oh, I forgot my books. I'll meet you there," she said, and walked the other way.

James and Lily stood speechless for a few seconds and looked after her while she stormed down the corridor.

"Come on," James said and pushed Lily slightly in the small of her back because she didn't move.

Slowly, they began to walk. For some seconds there was a very awkward silence.

"Congratulations with Michaela." Lily said shyly.

James smiled. "Thanks."

"She must be great since she turned you just like that."

James wasn't sure what Lily meant and just shrugged. "I guess."

He looked at Lily. Closer, she did look very pale, and still very sick. She reminded him of Remus around the full moons. They sat down outside the door to the classroom.

"Lily, is… Is there anything wrong?" he asked hesitating.

Lily looked up at him. Her gaze was full of wonder and what James thought was sadness.

She slowly shook her head. "No… I'm just not feeling all well just yet."

"Okay. Because you look very outworn and tired."

"James, it's nothing." She looked away and sighed. "Just leave it."

"Alright. I just want to help."

"You have done enough…" she said and got up. "I'm sorry. I have to go to the restroom."

Then she left before James could utter another word. He stood alone in the corridor and looked after Lily with his head slightly cocked and one word flying through his head; What? He had done enough? What did that mean?

He sat for five minutes and stared into space before Joey walked around the corner and looked at him.

"Where's Lily?" she asked.

"Restroom," James said.

Joey looked at him for a few seconds before he walked the same way Lily had walked just minutes before. The rest of the class began to show up, and at last, Professor Flitwick. Lily and Joey came back a few minutes into the class, laughing.

After the lesson, James found Michaela and they spent some time outside, just walking around.

The next two days went the same way, only with one exception; he had to meet Lily and the prefects in an empty classroom on Friday evening. They had to set up a new schedule for everyone to patrol the corridors, and they had to find a date for the next Hogsmeade weekend, which was finally set for the first weekend of December.

"I guess you'll ask Michaela to go with you," Sirius said when James told him about the Hogsmeade weekend.

The two boys sat in a corner of the Gryffindor Common Room a little away from everyone else, not really doing anything.

"Yep," James said and nodded. "You want to go with Alexa?"

Sirius shrugged. "I guess…"

James looked at Sirius for some seconds, wondering a bit about his friend. "Mate," he said firmly, "Why are you with Alexa?"

Sirius looked up at him. "Why shouldn't I?"

James sighed. Maybe this would be harder than he'd thought. Was Sirius really that blind himself, or did he just deny it?

"Because you don't like her, you like someone else. I'm just wondering what you're doing."

Sirius was silent for an instant. "How could you know?" he asked.

James smiled slightly. "I know you… I can see it in the way you look at her."

Sirius looked down again. "She's just not like every other girl. She's more… How can I explain it? She's not as girlish and easy to get to. She's not going around giggling because of some boy with ten other girls. She's just… Herself…" he sighed, putting his face into his hands. "She'll never like me…"

James looked anxious at his friend. "Not the way you behave at the moment. But I don't think she hates you as much as you think."

"You don't?" Sirius asked and looked up at James a lot happier.

James shook his head and leaned a bit forward towards Sirius. He looked at him for a few seconds.

"But I must warn you…" he said in a low voice. "If you ever – ever – hurt her… And if you ever cause her any unhappiness of any kind, I swear, I will hunt you down and kick your arse. Joey is not a toy you can play with and then just dump her like with other girls. She's real, and if you don't treat her with the respect she deserves, I will kill you. Brutally. Then I won't care that you're my best mate. Joey is a good friend of mine too and I would hate to see her get hurt."

Sirius looked a bit scared of what James had just said, but eventually leaned back as James did the same. He slowly shook his head.

"I won't date her…"

James frowned. "Why is that?"

"I'll end up hurting her, just as you said. She'll be better off if I don't come near her."

James didn't know what to say. He would like his two best friends to start dating, but he didn't want to see them break up if they did. And he was almost sure they would, since it involved Sirius.

"No one will 'be better off' apart from the person they love," he said after a couple of seconds. "If you must, then do it… Just don't think of her like you do about every other girl."

Sirius shrugged. "I'm afraid I will. I think it's for the best if I just leave her alone."

James and Sirius sat some seconds in silence. None of them had anything more to say on the subject. Suddenly James got up and looked at Sirius.

"Let's do something more cheering than this. Want to go find Snivellus?" he asked and smiled.

Sirius grinned. "Of course."

Later that same day, James and Joey joined the rest of the Quidditch team down on the Quidditch Pitch. They had flown for about ten minutes when Joey flew up next to James.

"What's he doing here?" she asked and nodded towards the end of the pitch.

James looked to where Joey had nodded and saw Sirius. "I guess he's here to watch us."

"You. He's here to watch you. And why can't he just stay up at the castle?!"

"Why can't he be here?" James asked and dodged a bludger.

"He's annoying," Joey said and dodged the next bludger.

James raised an eyebrow at Joey. "You don't mean that."

"Yes I do. Well, not annoying. I can easily talk to him, but he's just disgusting."

"Why do you hate him that much?"

"I don't hate him. It's just the way he is. You know, with the girls and stuff."

"Oi!" John Peterson, beater and captain of the team, called. "Potter and Sands! Get back to the game!"

James shrugged. "Just let him be the way he is. He's trying to change."

"I doubt that very much." Joey called and flew away back to the goal rings.

James saw Michaela join Sirius and look up at him. He waved at her and turned back to the practice. He couldn't stop himself from showing off a little bit on the broom. He was doing tricks he had learned in the not-linked-with-Lily time of his summer holiday. They were all a bit rusty, but he knew it would her impress nevertheless.

After practice, he walked back to the castle along with Michaela.

"Seen the posts for the next Hogsmeade weekend?" James asked a bit awkwardly.

Michaela nodded. "Yeah."

"Umm… So you have any plans for the day?"

"Not really."

"I was wondering… If you maybe wanted to go with me?" James asked and let his hand run through his hair.

Michaela looked up at him. "Sure."

James sighed. "Wow. That was much easier than I thought," he said and smiled at her.

"You weren't nervous, were you?" Michaela grinned.

"Well. I have never been too lucky on that spot, if you know what I mean…" James said, referring to Lily.

Michaela looked down. "I guess…" she just said.

"Sorry…" James said as he realized how it must have sounded. "I didn't mean to make it sound like you-"

"It's okay." It sounded rather final.

James stopped walking and Michaela stopped too and looked at him. He looked at her for a few seconds. Slowly, as they kept the eye contact, James saw her eyes turn from green into blue and at last the purple. He kissed her quickly. When they broke apart she pulled him back by the neck and they kissed again.

After five minutes, they both pulled apart and started to walk up towards the castle again.

"You're coming to watch the Quidditch match next Saturday, right?" James asked

Michaela nodded. "Yeah. I'd like to see you get beaten by Ravenclaw."

"Then it's a shame that it won't happen," James grinned.

"We'll see about that," Michaela smiled.

"Sure. But we'll still crush you."

Michaela sighed. "Drop it, Potter. You won't win."

James quickly grabbed her around the waist and swung her around and a bit down so she lay almost horizontally in the air, only hanging in James's arms.

"Ah! James don't you let go!" she shrieked and grabbed him around the neck.

"Then say it!" he grinned.

"Say what?"

"Gryffindor will win. And Ravenclaw won't stand a chance!"

"But I must not lie," she said with an innocent look on her face.

"Say it, or I'll drop you!"

"But-"

"Just say it!" James grinned and loosened his grip a bit.

Her grip around his neck tightened a bit. James didn't stop grinning and Michaela sighed.

"All right. Gryffindor will win and Ravenclaw will lose. Happy?"

"Yep!" James said and let go of Michaela and she fell to the ground.

"AH! You said you wouldn't!"

"Yeah," James said and sighed. "Don't trust me in situations like that."

"You're so dead!" she said and got up.

James grinned and ran away with Michaela right behind him. As they made it to the doors into the castle, James had trouble opening them and Michaela was at his side in seconds. She grabbed him around the waist and held on to.

"That was the last time you ever did that!"

James shrugged. "Maybe."

They both grinned and went inside again.


	17. Barbies Aren't That Great, Really

_A/N: Okay, I can understand people are not happy with the Mika/James relationship and I could see I have lost some readers. I'll not go down on both knees and ask you to stay because I write this story as I want it to happen and as it has been planned from the beginning. But I can tell you as much that this story is/will be twenty-four chapters long. You can do the math and guess just how long it'll last. Thanks to all who are still staying with me even though you hate Mika._

17 – Barbies aren't that great, really

A rush of excitement ran through the crowd as the two seekers suddenly dived. James' eyes were on the last of them, the Gryffindor one. He was far behind, and most likely not able to catch the snitch. They'd lose. That was for sure. As none of the beaters seemed able to hit a bludger toward the Ravenclaw seeker, he took a snap decision. Hadn't John Peterson asked them to sacrifice for the team?

Biting his lips hardly, he turned his broom in the air. With a last look toward the other two chasers he sped up. The words 'stupid' and 'reckless' ran through his mind as the distance shortened. Out of his ear, he heard the speaker, but he couldn't focus on it to make sense.

Stupid.

Then he collided with the Ravenclaw seeker and it was all black.

Next he heard voices around. Incomprehensive, low murmurs. It felt as if he was being pushed down. Pushed by something heavy and strong. Even his eyelids were closed and didn't want to open. With one last fight, his eyes fluttered open. A squeal was heard and next his vision was blurred by a mass of blond hair. Laughter and cheers were heard then.

"Merlin, Joe, let him breathe."

Joey broke away from James and turned to Dean. "Shut up. Joey or Josephina unless you want to die."

Dean, seeker and fifth year of the team, grinned. "Okay then. Josephina."

Joey grimaced. "So, James, how are you?"

He straightened slightly up and looked around at his team. "It depends… Did we win?"

"We sure did," John, grinned, pushing Dean softly with his fist.

"Geller was so wasted," Terry, beater and third year of the team, said. "He's over there." He nodded towards the other end of the hospital wing.

James looked around and saw a small crowd of Ravenclaw players surrounding another bed. He smirked and then turned back to his team.

"So when'll I be out?"

John looked towards Madam Pomfrey. "Tonight, I hope."

As if having heard the conversation Madam Pomfrey rushed to James' bed. "Good day, Potter," she said. "It's been a while. But what's a Quidditch Match without injuries?" The sarcasm didn't suit her.

"You know it's just to see you," he grinned. The team laughed. "So when will I be out?"

"Soon. Have patience."

"But James," John said, "there's a smaller crowd just outside, hoping to see you. You wouldn't want to let them down, would you?"

"'Course not," James grinned. "Bring my fans in."

Joey rolled her eyes. "Friends James, you're not king of the word."

"But he wishes," Dean smirked.

The team, except Joey, excited. The next second, Sirius burst through the doors, closely followed by Remus, Peter, Michaela and at last, Lily. They were all smiling at him. Michaela the most.

"Wow," Sirius said. "Stupid, but great."

"Were you trying to kill yourself?" Remus asked.

James shrugged. "Not really."

"But it looked awesome," Lily said, smiling.

He grinned proudly, fixing his eyes on Michaela. "So what was it that I said?"

"You say so much," she replied smoothly. "Which part do you mean?"

"The one about Gryffindor beating all life out of Ravenclaw."

She rolled her eyes. "It was only because you acted like an idiot."

"I agree," Lily muttered.

He shot both girls a glare. "Oh, come on! Sirius, you think it was great, right?"

He shrugged. "Really, Prongs… It was quite dangerous."

James looked at Remus and Peter. They both moved uncomfortably. At last, Peter sighed.

"I guess it was okay, Prongs."

James raised both his hands up. "And the greatest person to walk on earth; James Potter!"

"Idiot," Lily muttered.

"You're an idiot," he shot back. She rolled her eyes. "Hey, don't do that! It's mean!"

Now Joey rolled her eyes too. "You're acting like a child James."

"Yeah, well, you're acting like a banana!"

Joey raised her eyebrows, and exchanged glances with Lily. Then they both burst out laughing. Sirius scratched his head, eyes on Joey.

"Not that we don't enjoy being here, looking at the crazy ladies, but we've got business to do," he said.

Remus nodded. "We'll be back for the party, Prongs."

James looked at them. They exchanged a glance and then his three friends walked out. Lily was looking after them. She slowly turned to James.

"What was that about?"

James shook his head. "Nothing."

She rolled her eyes. "You're a bad liar James."

"I said nothing's up." He turned to Joey, about to change the topic, but Lily apparently didn't want to let it go.

"Merlin, James. Where are they going?" She shot him a glare.

"Do you have to be such a snobbish person?" he asked, frustrated. "Why do you always have to stick your nose in other people's business?"

She looked deeply offended. "Fine," she shot. "I was-"

"Enough!" Joey cut in. Both Lily and James looked at her. "It seems no matter what Sirius and I try to do, you two just can't get off each other's neck! Stop for just a minute! It's tiring to listen to and annoys all of us! So please, retrieve the peace you found this summer or Sirius and I might step into this again!"

James looked away, sulking. So did Lily. Joey breathed in deeply.

"So," she said, calm again, "Please apologize to each other."

James looked at Lily. "I'm sorry I called you a snobbish person."

"Sorry I didn't believe you," she muttered back.

"And shake hands," Joey said.

James rolled his eyes and took hold of Lily's hand. As their eyes met, they couldn't help but laugh. Joey clasped her hands together.

"Great. Now Lily and I will go."

James looked after Joey as she pushed Lily out of the Hospital Wing. He turned back to Michaela and was surprised that she looked at him with slightly narrowed eyes, like wanting to read him. She was frowning.

"What?" he asked.

"What happened this summer?"

James bit his lower lip. He hadn't told Michaela about that one month of his summer where he and Lily had been linked together. Why hadn't he?

"It's umm…" he paused. "It's a rather long history. Want to hear the short version?"

She nodded.

"Well… I live next door to Joey, and over the summer she had Lily over. You know how Lily and I have never gotten along and at last Joey and Sirius got sick of it and decided to link us together by an unbreakable bond. It wouldn't go away until we learned to get along. We had to be friends and that happened at last after a month or so…"

She looked at him. "So… For a whole month you and Lily…" She trailed off.

He sighed. "Slept, ate and did everything in the same room."

"A whole month?" she asked silently. He nodded. "James, why didn't you tell me?" she looked more like hurt now.

"I…" He scratched his head. "I just didn't consider it such a big deal."

"No, but maybe I would…"

"I'm sorry. Okay?"

Michaela looked at him for a few seconds. "Fine. But you don't have to hide that kind of stuff from me next time."

He nodded. She smiled slightly and sat over on his bed. He sat up straight, giving her a soft kiss.

He was discharged about one hour later when the last potion had started to work properly. He walked with Michaela a little way, but they had to part quickly since she was going to the Ravenclaw Tower and he to the Gryffindor one. He stopped outside the portrait hole. Noise was heard. He said the password and entered. The party was already running up high.

"Finally here," a voice said.

He turned and found Lily leaning against the wall with her one shoulder, a glass of butterbeer in her hands. She was smiling that smile only she could muster. He cursed himself for letting that smile make his heart rate a bit faster. He smiled back.

"Yep. So where is Joey?"

Lily nodded to the sofa. "Over there. She's not herself."

James eyed Joey. "What's up with her?"

Lily bit her lower lip. "She had a row with Sirius."

"Is he back already?"

She rolled her eyes. "No, she fought with someone pretending to be him."

"No need to sound sarcastic," he muttered.

She laughed. "So will you talk to her, or shall I?"

"I'll do it."

"Do you even know what's bothering her?"

He grinned at her. "I have a hunch."

They looked at each other for a long time. James tried to figure out exactly how much Lily knew, but her eyes wouldn't say a thing.

"I'll see you," he said and winked, then turned towards Joey.

If he had turned half a second later, he wouldn't have missed the flush Lily's cheeks got. She quickly hid it though, by scratching her cheek.

James stopped in front of the couch. "Hey, Joe."

She sat with closed eyes, but didn't open them. "Joey, James, Joey."

He ignored her. "So where's Sirius?"

She looked up at him, snarling soundlessly. "Over there," – she pointed towards Sirius who was talking to some girl he did not recognise – "with Barbie Brainless."

He laughed. "What did you fight about?"

"Nothing."

"Doesn't seem like nothing."

She rolled her eyes. "Mind your own business."

"You are my business. Go talk to him."

She sighed. "But I don't want to!"

"I'm sure you do!"

Before Joey could fight back, he'd grabbed her hands and pulled her up. With a last grin, he pushed her towards Sirius and Barbie. Sirius' eyes flicked for a second to Joey, but the next, they were gone. James looked around. Where was Lily? He spotted her in the other end of the Common Room. He pushed his way through the crowd to get to her.

"Lily!" he called.

She turned at once. "Yeah?"

He smiled. "Come! You've got to see this!"

She frowned. "What?"

He shook his head and grabbed her hand without thinking it twice. He dragged her back toward Joey and Sirius. He turned Lily so she was facing Joey, Sirius and Barbie while he kept his back to them. They were just within earshot.

"Sirius?" Joey said. It seemed like it wasn't the first time she'd asked. "Do you have a moment?"

Sirius looked at her annoyed. "In fact, I don't."

"She's annoyed," Lily whispered.

James smirked and turned to Lily so it seemed like they were having a conversation. "I know. Now, shh! I want to hear." Lily rolled her eyes.

"Sirius, it's kind of important," Joey urged.

"So is this."

"She's turning to Barbie." Lily's eyes were bright with excitement.

"I want to shift places!" James complained. "You get all the action!"

"Too bad, Pretty Boy," she smirked.

He bit his lower lip. Then grabbed her around the waist and shifted their positions in one smooth movement. Lily was about to complain but James clasped a hand over her mouth.

"Shut up now, Evans, or I will force you to!"

She looked as if wanting to debate him and then take the consequences later, but suddenly Joey's slightly raised voice made it to their ears.

"Oh, get the hell out of here, Barbie," Joey snapped.

Lily snickered. "She didn't!"

"She did!" James grinned and watched as Barbie rushed away, angry.

Sirius looked at Joey annoyed. "What was that supposed to be?"

"As I said," Joey hissed. "I wanted to apologize!"

"Maybe I don't want to listen!"

"I think you do. Because I've got something to tell you."

Sirius snorted. "I'll repeat myself, and write it in big letters for you if I have to. I don't want to listen to what you've got to say!"

He turned to leave, but Joey grabbed his arm. "Sirius, listen-"

"No, Joey you listen," Sirius interrupted. "You threw a fit on me earlier! I was trying to be nice. In fact, I've tried to be like that to you for a long time now. But you're just throwing it all back at me! That's not nice. And you know why I've tried this?" He didn't give her time to answer. Lily now turned to look too. "Because maybe, just maybe, I'd come to fancy you. A bit. But maybe I was wrong. I was wrong! I feel nothing for you."

Joey was stunned. She looked at Sirius as if he'd gone crazy. All of a sudden he grabbed her with one hand and forced her face to his. He planted a slightly long kiss on her lips and then broke away.

"See," he said confidently and waved his hand. "Nothing."

Then he turned on his heel and stormed away. Joey looked stunned for a second. Then Lily snapped out of the shock both she and James were in.

"Oh, screw it all, Joey!" she said with hysterics in her voice. "Go after him!"

Joey didn't even seem annoyed that Lily and James had been listening. She just turned and then stormed the same way Sirius had gone.

"Oh MERLIN!" Lily screamed and flung her arms around James' neck. "Oh, wow!"

He smiled softly and put his arms around her too. "Now we'll just have to wait."


	18. Back to the Beginning

18 – Back to the Beginning

For the next Hogsmeade date, everyone at the whole school knew about Sirius's new girlfriend. But since most of the girls knew how Sirius was, no one was taking him seriously. 'They'll split within a week', most girls said. But Sirius didn't care. For the first time ever, he was actually in love with the girl he was dating. They were going to Hogsmeade together that weekend. And since James was going with Michaela, Remus and Peter were left behind, just the two of them. Lily, on the other hand, was left alone. At last, she decided to go with the other girls from her dorm.

James watched the girls' backs as he and Michaela headed down the grounds on the way to Hogsmeade. They were going in front of them, far enough for him to not hear what they were talking about, but close enough for him to hear their laughter. One of the girls, Janine, pushed Lily slightly while everyone started to laugh very much. James watched as Lily moved a step sideways and grinned at Janine, who was blushing extremely.

"So…" Michaela said and made James look at her. "Where do you wanna go?"

"I don't know…." James said slowly. "You?"

Michaela shrugged.

A quarter of an hour later, they stopped and watched the Shrieking Shack. Michaela didn't look comfortable.

"Something wrong?" James asked

"I just don't like the house. It's haunted," Michaela said in a simple way.

James smiled. "Nah, I don't think it is."

"Really? You know, the residents hear howls from it sometimes."

"Yeah…" James said, and grinned even wider. "I think it's a pure fabrication…"

He, of course, knew that it was because of Remus and the time he spent in there every month. He was the one making the howls.

"Okay. You think what you want to think, and I'll think what I think."

"That's a great idea, Mika!" James grinned.

James turned to her and kissed her lightly. Just once, but it soon turned into a bit more. After five minutes, James started to feel the cold in his feet and broke apart.

"Want to grab a Butterbeer or something?" he asked.

Michaela shrugged. "Sure…"

James grabbed her hand and together, they walked towards the Three Broomsticks. As they entered, James headed towards the table in the corner, but saw that it already had been taken by a couple of giggling girls. He showed the white of his eyes and sat down at the table next to it. He sat with his back to them so he didn't have to look at them. As Michaela sat down, he looked past her and saw Lily and five other girls sitting at a table, drinking Butterbeer.

"I'll get something to drink." Michaela said and got up.

James just nodded. He looked back at Lily and the other girls. They were definitely talking about boys, because first, Janine blushed, then the girl named Rachel and at last Lily, and then everyone began to giggle.

Lily lifted her gaze from the girls and eyed James. He quickly sent her a smile. She lifted her hand shortly and smiled back at him. This made all the girls turn around and look at James who suddenly found the table very interesting. When he looked up again, some of the girls were leaning a bit over the table towards Lily and Alice and they were, without any doubt, gossiping.

"Here," Michaela said and sat down.

James looked at her. "Thanks," James said and smiled.

He kissed her softly on her cheek and she smiled too.

"So you really don't think the shack is haunted?" she grinned.

"Nope." James said. "But I think you look really cute when you're smiling."

Michaela blushed slightly. "Thanks," she mumbled.

James leaned over the table and kissed her. They didn't break apart again and James enjoyed just sitting there, kissing without thinking of what happened around them.

At the table with Lily and the other girls, most of them had now turned around and they all were studying James and Michaela, some of them with a hint of jealousy in their expressions. It was the same, if not worse, at the table behind James, but neither he nor Michaela noticed anything.

When they had sat for what could be five minutes or five hours, someone walked past their table and stopped. They broke apart.

It was a girl Michaela knew. She and Michaela started talking and James looked past Michaela again, to find Lily sitting on the same chair she was sitting before. He heard Michaela out of one of his ears.

"… but he didn't like her that much, so they broke up. I quite understand that…"

He studied Lily while she took a sip of her Butterbeer. Her hair was lose around her shoulders and just as James looked at her, she swung all of it over her left shoulder and looked up. They caught each others' gazes and Lily looked away. James studied her for some seconds while she said something to Alice and they all began to laugh. She let her hand run through the end of her hair like brushing it or straightening it out.

Michaela's friend had left and now she sat looking at James. He noticed that and looked back at her and smiled. She smiled back.

"Could we go back to the castle now?" she asked. "I'm having a bit of a headache."

"Sure," James said and emptied his Butterbeer. "Let's go."

Michaela got up and they walked back to the castle together.

As James entered the Gryffindor Tower, it was almost empty. Only first and second years and some older students who apparently hadn't felt like going to Hogsmeade were at the Common Room. James eyed Remus and Peter and walked over to them.

"Hey. You're back from Hogsmeade early."

Remus shrugged. "There wasn't anything special. And every table at the Three Broomsticks was filled. One of them with some black-haired guy with glasses and his girlfriend, kissing. Pretty annoying actually."

James grinned and pushed Remus slightly. "You're a funny guy today, aren't you?"

Peter grinned. "He's been like that all day. I'd say something's bothering him!"

"Oh, is it that time of the month?" James grinned.

Remus studied him. "Was that supposed to be one of your 'double-funny double-jokes'?" he asked, referring to James's jokes that had more than one meaning.

They were known among the Marauders as 'double-funny double-jokes' and it was mostly only James and Peter who thought they were funny. Sirius and Remus just found them vulgar and rather ridiculous.

"Yep!" James grinned.

"It wasn't funny at all."

James shook his head and looked out of the window. The three of them sat there for one more hour before they went down towards the Great Hall to have dinner. Sirius and Joey joined them about five minutes into the meal.

James noticed how different Sirius acted towards Joey compared to any of his previous girlfriends. He didn't have to sit with his arm around her or kiss her all the time. Actually, if you hadn't known, you would have just thought they were friends. Funny enough, James actually thought it suited him; and her too, as a matter of fact. Joey also looked happier than ever.

Through the next couple of days, James didn't see much of Michaela, and the only times he saw her was on his way to classes or while eating in the Great Hall. It seemed like every time he saw her, she was very busy, and James had to admit that she looked to be very stressed lately.

At the beginning of the following weekend, James and Sirius sat in the Gryffindor Common Room and played chess when Joey walked through the portrait hole, and headed towards them.

"Michaela's looking for you," she said to James and sat down in a chair.

James looked up. "Did she say why?"

"Nope. Just that it was kind of important."

"Where did you meet her?"

"The library."

James got up. "I'll see you later."

He ran out through the portrait hole and headed towards the library. While he entered, he couldn't see Michaela anywhere. He walked a bit further inside and saw her at the table where he had tutored her. He quickly walked over and sat down.

"Hey," he said and smiled. "What's up?"

Michaela looked up. "James, we need to talk."

James nodded. "Sure," he said and grabbed her hands. "What is it?"

"James… I'm not sure this is working out well," she said slowly.

James looked at her for a few seconds and then nodded. He already knew what she was about to say, but didn't interrupt her.

"I mean… Well, you're really a sweet guy and I like you a lot…"

'Here comes the 'but',' James thought.

"But…" she said, and James couldn't hold a faint smile back, "James, you haven't moved on. I kind of knew that from the beginning, but I tried to ignore it. As I said, I like you, but I won't be the second-best choice. You're not over Lily, and I… I just don't think it's going to work out."

James nodded. "Yeah…" he just said; he couldn't come up with anything else.

"We can still be friends, but the way you looked at her in the Three Broomsticks… I can't get that image out of my head. You never look at me like that."

"Looked at her?" James asked a bit confused.

"Yeah, while I got us Butterbeers, and while I talked to my friend. James you just didn't realize you did it, and that's when you made your mistake. You have to get your feelings for Lily straight to yourself. Not because of me, but because of yourself…"

James nodded. He knew Michaela was right, and didn't have anything to say to her. He liked Lily and that was it. He would probably never move on, but at least Michaela had realized it herself and said it to him.

"I've had a great time with you Mika," he said and looked up at her.

"And I've enjoyed it too," she said.

James studied her as her eyes filled with tears, but still shinned almost purple. She slowly got up and walked over to James. He got up and gave her a hug.

"You're right. I have lived on a lie the last few months. Thanks for making me realize it," he said.

"It's okay," she said and they broke apart.

James gave her a last kiss on her lips and watched her while she turned and walked out of the library. He let himself slump down in the chair and tried to understand what had just happened. Everything had happened so quickly, but it had felt right. As if it was needed to be done.

After half an hour, he got up and headed towards Gryffindor Tower. While he entered, only Joey was to be seen sitting on the couch with her feet on the table and reading a book. James walked over and sat down. She quickly moved her feet down from the table, but didn't look up from her book.

"Where's Sirius?" he asked.

"Showering," she said quickly without removing her eyes from the book.

"Lily?"

"The same."

"Remus?"

"Studying.

"Peter?"

"Missing."

James leaned back and sighed. "Michaela broke up with me. Apparently because I'm still into Lily!" he said with an annoyed smile.

"At least one of you could think then," Joey said, still with her eyes fixed on her book.

"What's that supposed to mean?" James asked.

"You're still into Lily."

"I-" James said as a protest, but Joey continued, still, without looking up from the book.

"Now that you don't have a girlfriend, you can admit to yourself that you still like her. Go on!"

James sighed. He knew Joey was right, but that didn't prevent him from thinking he was a bit ridiculous. And the fact that Joey didn't look up, annoyed him very much.

"Fine… I hope you're happy now that you have made me admit I like a girl who feels nothing but friendly feelings for me."

Joey looked up from her book and closed it while putting it on the table. She leaned a bit forward to James. He looked at her, knowing she was about to say something important.

"James, you do realize that when you and Michaela first started dating, Lily spent four days in the girls' dorm, crying? Four days! She didn't attend any classes at all. You don't do that if you only have friendly feelings for someone."

James wasn't sure if it was a question or just a fact that was being stated, but Joey looked very serious and it frightened him a bit.

"She… She did?" he asked, stunned. "I thought she was ill. You said so."

Joey nodded. "Yeah, I said so. She wasn't, though, she just couldn't face you after you started to date another girl. I'm not sure how you'll interpret that, but I'll say she kind of fancies you," she said with a glint in her eye.

"You've got to be kidding me!" he said and sighed.

"Nope. But please don't rush into anything. Maybe she has come around, now it's your job not to screw it up!" Joey said as her final words and grabbed her book again while leaning back.

James looked at Joey, knowing he would not be able to make her speak again.

_A/N … I bet you're all really happy and have got a few things to say, don't let me stop you! Leave feedback. But please, no dissing Mika… too much. Personally I think she's a great person and can't really follow all of you who hate her. Hehe, but well, I thought I had to get this up before I leave to go on vacation as that'd make you all so happy :P_


	19. Not to Panic

19 – Not to Panic

James was actually fine, considering he and his girlfriend had just broken up. When word of this got around school, James found himself being somehow stalked or followed to classes several times by girls who should be going the exact opposite way.

"This is getting seriously annoying!" James whispered to Sirius while he sat down at Charms. He had just been followed to class by two fifth year girls from Ravenclaw.

"Mate, you need to get yourself a girlfriend to make it stop," Sirius grinned.

"You know there's only one I want," James said with his eyes on Lily's back.

"Whatever," Sirius shrugged. "Just make a move! Joey is sick of Lily's complaining and I'm sick of yours."

"Is Lily complaining?" James raised an eyebrow.

"Well, not exactly, but as Lily's best friend, Joey can read between the lines!"

James rolled his eyes. "You're being ridiculous!"

"Am I?" Sirius raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah!"

"Oh, come on, Prongs!" Sirius threw his hands up in the air. "It's so obvious you like each other, so stop whining and ask her out."

"That's the problem!" James exclaimed, and made several of his classmates turn around. Next, he continued in a whisper. "Before, when I asked her out, I kind of knew the answer already, now I don't know! If she says no, I'll be disappointed, if she agrees, then I'll totally start to freak out and mess it all up! I don't know what to do!"

Professor Flitwick stopped in front of their table. "Please boys, we do have a class going on now."

"Sure, sure," Sirius said and smiled, then took out his wand. "We'll get straight to business, professor Flit!"

Professor Flitwick looked at Sirius while frowning and continued with the lesson. Then Sirius turned to James.

"Really, Prongs, you have to decide, not me. You only have half a week before Christmas break, otherwise you'll have to wait two more weeks! You have to ask the girl out!"

James sighed. "We're going home for Christmas, right?"

Sirius nodded. "Sure. Do you, by the way, have any idea what I can get for Joey? I'm lost because I'm not used to buying Christmas presents; I usually break up with the girl when that time comes."

James snorted. "You've really been a chicken, haven't you?"

"Yeah, whatever. Now, have you got any ideas?"

"Girls love accessories, clothes… Anything they can use while they stand in front of a mirror."

"I'd like to give her a bracelet. But isn't that too ridiculous?"

"I think it's great. But remember: Joey is not a girl-girl. She's a bit boy-girlish… You know? Nothing pink, right?"

Sirius grinned. "I think I know my own girlfriend well enough to not give her some girlie thing."

"Good…"

"But you seriously need to ask Lily out… Soon!"

"Sure."

But that didn't happen, though. As the week came to an end, James had not yet asked Lily out, even though he really wanted to and the two of them had spent lots of time with each other, because Sirius and Joey would disappear for longer periods of time together. He said goodbye to her at King's Cross Station along with the others and headed home with Joey and Sirius.

"You're quite stupid!" Joey said as she entered James' room the same day.

"Thanks," James said without knowing what Joey was talking about. "Why is that?"

"You have Lily right where you want her and then you hesitate! I've never seen such a stupid thing!"

"Calm down, baby." Sirius grinned and grabbed Joey by the hips and dragged her over to him.

"No, I will not!" Joey said while she sat down on Sirius's lap. "My two best friends like each other, but they don't get together."

"By the way, has Lily told you she likes James?"

"No, but you can see it on her. Just like you can see James likes her."

James sighed and fell backwards on his bed. "This really doesn't matter now, since I won't see her for two weeks."

"Um, actually… Lily's coming over the 30th…" Joey said. "And… Our parents have planned to spend New Year's Eve together."

"Oh," James just said; he couldn't come up with anything else.

"Change of topic!" Sirius exclaimed, trying to make James feel better.

"Okay, then I have one more thing…" Joey said and turned to look at Sirius straight in the eyes. "You have to meet my parents before New Year's Eve… I think that's best so you can make a good impression."

Sirius stopped smiling. "When you say meet… Do you mean meet as in 'look at them from the other end of the garden'?"

"Nope. Meet as in go over and say 'Hello! I'm Sirius Black, Josephina's boyfriend', that kind of meet."

"But I met your parents this summer."

"Did we date then?"

"Oh…"

James grinned. "You haven't tried that kind of problems before."

"No…" Sirius said and shook his head slowly.

Joey studied Sirius with raised eyebrows. "You aren't afraid, are you?"

He looked out of the window. "No…"

Joey grinned. "Yes you are! Come on!"

And without further hesitation Joey grabbed Sirius hands and dragged him after her out of the room and out. James got up and looked out of the window. He looked down and saw Joey pulling Sirius into their garden and walking towards her parents who were trying to clean it from snow. They smiled at Sirius and shook hands. Sirius still didn't look well. James grinned and shook his head; this was good for Sirius, having Joey, who was different from what he had had before.

James walked back and fell down on his bed while closing his eyes.

Joey was actually right, he was stupid. Nothing had prevented him previously from asking Lily out, why did this have to change now? What was he so nervous about? Her presence had started to make him nervous, but it wasn't the normal nervousness he used to have when she was around. He knew it was just because he liked her, but it was different, he just couldn't figure out why!

"ARRGH!" he exclaimed and let his hand hit the wall.

He sat up again, head in his hands and tilting backwards and forwards.

"What is it?" he asked himself. "What's wrong with me? Why is Evans torturing me even when she's not here? What is it with you, Lily? Why can't I stop thinking about you?"

He got up and walked over to his desk and pulled a drawer out. He found a picture of himself, Sirius, Joey and at last Lily, from this summer. He studied her as she laughed and shoved James slightly. But he was not ready for it and fell backwards with Lily right after him because of the chain. Joey and Sirius started to laugh hard and so did Lily and him. After some seconds, Lily got off of James and they helped each other up.

The real James grinned to himself and put the picture back, knowing he would never be able to get over Lily and he made up his mind. When the time was right, he would ask Lily out. That was a promise to himself, Joey, and most of all, Lily.

James sat up as he heard someone come up the stairs. A second later, Sirius burst through the door. He grinned at James.

"Guess it didn't go as bad as I thought…" James grinned.

"Nope! Lise and Jacob are really great!"

"I'm glad for you, but where did Joey go?"

"She stayed back, to help her parents."

"Okay… Should we go to the mall? You still need to find that present?"

Sirius nodded. "Yeah…"

Both of them got up and headed out, grabbing sweaters on their way. Five minutes later, James and Sirius entered the mall, with snow in their hair and red cheeks because of the cold. They looked around and walked straight towards the jewellery shop.

"You have muggle-money, right?" Sirius asked before they entered.

"Yeah," James said quickly.

"Good," Sirius said and stepped inside.

James followed. He looked around and suddenly felt he didn't belong in such a place. There were cabinets made of glass and jewellery inside of them. It was like everything shinned and sparkled and warned James not to move closer.

"I bet a galleon that I'll break something in here before you've found something," he whispered to Sirius who grinned at him.

The two boys parted and started to look for the perfect thing for Joey. James stopped at several silver bracelets, but he didn't like any of them. He looked while Sirius walked through the store, looking at the different jewelleries.

After half an hour that seemed to last more than half a day, Sirius finally picked a bracelet. James nodded approvingly, and then hurried outside just knocking over a little statue, but quickly grabbed it and placed it safely behind him.

Sirius excited a few seconds after, snickering. "Ha! You're clumsy!"

"So are you!"

"I didn't knock anything over."

James rolled his eyes. "So now that you've found your present for Joey, what's next?"

"Snow fight?"

"I'm tired!"

Sirius sighed deeply. "Okay, we'll sleep then!"

"Wow, fun."

"You're the one saying you needed sleep."

"We could go annoy Joey!"

Sirius frowned. "Or! We could go annoy someone else! It's been so long since we've played pranks on Muggles!"

James smirked. "Then what are we waiting for?"

They stopped outside of the mall. James found a bench with a perfect view of the square and they both sat down. Sirius took out his wand.

"Okay, look! Wormtail and I found this spell a few weeks ago!"

He waved his wand at a bare spot some meters away. A few minutes later, a person walked past it, and fell. He landed straight on his face but sat up at once, looking around. He looked at the spot then, but since he couldn't see anything, he frowned and got up, storming away. Sirius snickered.

"Ha!"

"That's a bit mean," James muttered. "He probably got snow all the way down his back!"

"But fun!"

"I didn't say it wasn't fun!"


	20. Fireworks

_A/N: Just dropping by to say thanks to all of my readers so far. If any of you are interested, go check out my one-shot;_ Or Something_. It's about what happened between Joey and Sirius after the encounter in chapter 17._

**20 – Fireworks**

The days of Christmas passed, Joey loved her gift from Sirius and suddenly, without James had really noticed, it was the 30th.

James woke up in his room to find it was midday and he and Sirius had slept very long. He stretched and slowly got out of bed. His stomach rumbled and he took his hand to it.

"I guess it's time for breakfast," he muttered to himself and headed out of his room.

As he entered the kitchen he had not yet heard the voices talking downstairs and found three persons sitting around the table, looking at him. The first was his mother, and to his big surprise Joey and Lily sat there too.

"Hey Lily," James said and smiled to her.

"Hi James," Lily said and looked at him and then at Joey, and without warning they both began to giggle.

"What?" James asked.

"James, go up and dress before you eat," his mother snapped softly at him.

James looked down and found that he was only wearing boxers.

"Sure," he mumbled and ran up the stairs again only to be down in the kitchen a minute later with a t-shirt on.

"That's better."

James found some cornflakes and milk before he sat down to eat.

"Can't even walk around in one's own house without being fully dressed," he murmured while pouring milk into the plate.

"Well, we were planning tomorrow, and you can do that everyday," Karen said.

"What's happening tomorrow?" James asked and looked up from his cornflakes.

"It's New Years Eve, stupid!" Joey grinned.

"Oh…"

"And Jeffrey will be here too."

James looked up. "Jeff? Your brother?"

Joey nodded. "Yeah."

"I haven't seen him for two years almost? How is he?"

"Fine I think. He and her Ursula are not together anymore."

"Oh, but she was so nice…"

"It was only because she said you were a good flyer and your hair looked great and soft," Joey said and Lily snorted.

"Oh yeah, that's right," James grinned at last. "What about Brad?"

"I thought I had told you he would be here too."

"Great! I haven't seen him since he finished Hogwarts almost a year ago!"

Joey grinned. "No, he's been busy, but he's looking forward to see you too James."

"Goo…" James said while chewing some of his cornflakes, and they all sent him a disgusted look. "Sorry, Mom. I know I'm not allowed to talk with food in my mouth," he said quickly when he had swallowed.

Karen smiled. "It's okay. I'll just not invite your father and you out together. It's embarrassing enough to have one who spits potatoes all over."

"Thanks."

The girls started talking New Years Eve. And James just ate the rest of his breakfast. When he was finished he got up and cleaned after himself.

"Well, I think I'll go up to wake Sirius," he said.

"Okay, tell him it's not healthy to sleep that much." Joey grinned.

"Are you kidding me? He would not wake up if it wasn't because I woke him up…" James said, but then added. "But then again. Sirius is not all normal. Maybe you're right."

Joey and Lily grinned and James turned to go up and wake Sirius.

The next day and a half passed quickly and James did not see much of Lily and Joey. He and Sirius were just on the way over to Joey and the rest of her family when James said how glad he was to see Brad, Joey's brother, again and Sirius stopped.

"Joey has a brother?" he asked, stunned.

"No, two actually. Why?"

"Brothers are the worst to meet! They'll kill me by asking me tons of questions!"

James grinned. "You don't have to worry about Bradley. You remember him, right; he graduated from Hogwarts last year and was in Hufflepuff?"

Sirius shrugged. "I don't know. Was he on their Quidditch team?"

"Yeah." James said and nodded. "As beater. But he's not the one you have to worry about. Jeffrey is four years older than us and is really protective towards Joey and her friends."

Sirius didn't look happy. "Does he hit hard?" he just asked.

James couldn't help but laugh. "He won't hit you! Jeff likes me and probably won't mind as you're my best mate."

Sirius swallowed and didn't look well.

"Come on!" James said and grabbed Sirius by the upper arm. He stormed down the stairs and dragged Sirius all the way and knocked at the door.

It was Brad who opened. Brad was not a big guy, but he was bigger than James and Sirius. He had short messy blonde hair and a warm smile. He looked at James and Sirius a few seconds, then smiled.

"James!" he exclaimed and dragged James into a hug. "It's been so long time!"

"It has," James said. "Here's one you need to meet. Sirius!"

Sirius had been on his way back again when James grabbed his upper arm and pulled him back.

"Hi!" Brad said and shook Sirius's hand. "I'm Bradley, but you can call be Brad. I'm Joey's brother."

"Hi…" Sirius said very nervously. "I'm Sirius Black, Joey's boy…" the rest came out as air only and none of them heard what he said.

"Joey's what?" Brad asked, frowning.

"Boyfriend!" James said for Sirius.

Brad frowned. "I didn't know she had such one. Did you say your last name were 'Black'?"

Sirius nodded. "Yeah, but I don't consider mysel-"

"My sister is dating a Slytherin?"

"No!" Sirius hurried to say. "I'm a Gryffindor. Actually I'd like you to forget my last name and just know me as 'Sirius' since I hate my family and everything that have to do with them."

Brad began to laugh. Not something unusual, brad could laugh of anything. "You're a funny one, aren't you? But of course, you're a friend of James so I couldn't think otherwise."

Sirius smiled a nervous smile. "Thanks."

"Now come in you two!"

"Why is it taking so long, Brad?" a voice called from the kitchen.

"It's just James and his friend!" Brad called back.

Seconds later a tall muscular guy with long blonde hair in a ponytail and a line of earrings in his one ear came out in the hall.

"James!" Jeff exclaimed and rushed over to give James a hug. "You've really grown."

"Yeah I really can't stop it," James grinned. "And this is my friend Sirius Black," he said and turned to Sirius.

Jeff shook Sirius' hand.

"He's also Joey's boyfriend," Brad grinned.

James could see that Jeff suddenly squeezed Sirius' hand a bit harder.

"You're Joey's boyfriend?" he asked coldly.

"Yeah-"

"You're also James' friend?"

"Yes, I-"

"For how long time have you been dating my sister?"

"Only a month or someth-"

"Are you nice to her?"

"I-"

"Jeffrey calm down!" Brad grinned. "Sirius is a great guy who hates his pure-blood family, and has got humour."

Jeff looked a bit gladder and let go of Sirius hand.

"I'm Jeffrey, and if you ever hurt my sister I'll make sure you feel the same pain multiplied with ten thousand."

"I've already given him that speech," James grinned.

Jeff looked at him. "Good James!" he said and placed his one arm around James's shoulder. "I'm glad you're around to take care of my sister and make sure they're not doing anything they are not allowed to."

In the same second two pairs of feet made their way down the stairs from the first floor and the four boys all looked up at Joey and Lily who came down in that second. James eyes stopped at Lily before even had seen Joey. She was wearing a red short and strapless dress and closely around her neck was a thick gold necklace which matched perfectly. She looked gorgeous.

After having realised he was staring James dragged his gaze away from Lily and to Joey instead. She wore a light blue dress with small shiny stones all over. James saw she wore the silver bracelet with blue stones she'd gotten from Sirius.

"She can't do that to me," James head Sirius mumble very low as he scanned Joey.

James grinned and shook his head.

Joey stopped and looked at her brothers. "Let me guess. You've already attacked Sirius and made him feel unwelcome."

"Jeff almost did," Brad grinned.

"No I didn't!"

"Yes you did. But its fine now I think. Sirius's a funny guy, Joey."

Joey grinned wide. "I think so too," she said. "Now shoo, and don't make him feel unwelcome again."

Brad and Jeff turned around and walked into the kitchen again with a last look over their shoulders at their little sister and her boyfriend. Joey grinned and shook her head.

"I'm sorry. They're just a bit overprotective."

"A bit?" Sirius grinned, laughing nervously.

It was around eleven in the evening and they had eaten and everyone had parted. The adults sat in the kitchen, talking, Jeff and Brad had gone for a walk, Joey and Sirius were talking in the living room, and James and Lily had made their way outside and now sat leaned back on a bench and looked into the sky with fireworks that kept exploding.

"You know what this reminds me about?" Lily asked as a big red flower appeared above their heads.

"No what?" James asked.

"That time in our fourth year where you, Sirius, Remus and Peter set that big box of fireworks at the loose in the entrance hall."

James made a little laugh. "Yeah, I remember that. One almost hit you. Man, I got scared there."

"It was actually my own fault. I'd run over to you and tell you how stupid it was, but it was not very clever to try to cross that battlefield."

"No, it wasn't," James had to admit. "But it just showed how much you wanted to say that to me."

Lily snorted. "Yeah, maybe it did…"

James slowly sat more straight up and looked at Lily who still looked into the sky with a smile on her lips.

"Lily…"

She lifted her head and looked at him. "Yeah?"

"What…" he asked but stopped to take a breath. "Um… what is it I've done wrong before in time? Why did you hate me so much?"

Lily sat up and looked at him some seconds. "I… I'm actually not sure. I mean first time we meet you were really sweet, but it kind of changed the next minute and through the next months. You became so… I'm not sure how to explain this…"

"Just try," James said; he wanted to know.

"Well, you started to act like you were so much better than everyone else. You know a bit… egocentric… But that few times we talked, you were nice. I just didn't like the person you were while you were with the boys. It's like you were to different persons."

James nodded. "I understand that…"

"You do?" Lily asked in a half laugh. "I myself find it very confusing what I just said."

"It was but I understood it."

Lily grinned "I'm glad you did… But just so you know it… I don't consider you as that person anymore."

"It would be a shame if you did, because I don't either," James said and looked Lily straight in the eye.

They were lightened blue up for a short second by a firework over their heads. Beautiful they were. He smiled and she looked down again.

"So…" she whispered.

"So, so," he muttered.

She smiled and leaned softly against his side. "Another year has passed."

"Yep," he said.

The silence suddenly seemed awkward, a thing it hadn't done just five minutes ago when they weren't speaking.

Someone laughed.

"…Yeah, and his face when you told it was not okay!"

More laughter.

James looked past Lily and saw Jeff and Brad enter the garden, grinning. Lily turned and pushed herself a bit away from James. Brad and Jeff hadn't yet seen them and kept laughing. They continued straight towards the bench. Brad stopped as he saw Lily and James sit there all alone.

"Hey you two. Why are you outside all alone?"

James shrugged. "Needed some fresh air."

"Hey, does this mean that Joey as all alone with Sirius somewhere?" Jeff asked and looked a bit worried.

"Don't worry," James said. "They're in the living room."

"I'll go inside," Lily said shortly and got up.

She took a last look at James before she rushed inside. James studied her hair flying behind her as she turned the corner.

"Mate, what was that about?" Brad asked and sat down.

"What?" James asked.

"That," Jeff said and sat down on the other side of James. "You and a certain red-haired girl who just ran inside."

"We were talking," James said slowly.

"It didn't look like we had just interrupted talking, did it Brad?"

Brad shook his head slowly. "Absolutely not. More like something we don't want Joey to do with Sirius."

James grinned. "Wait a minute! You think we had gone outside to do anything else but talk?"

"Um, yeah!" Jeff grinned. "James, we know you, and you wouldn't let a chance pass with such a girl."

"With Lily I would. She's not like that. She's different, that's what I like about her."

"But you want to?"

James sighed. "Of course I want to! It's Lily for Merlin's sake! But something keeps me from doing it…"

"Ohh!" Brad exclaimed. "She's the girl, right? The girl you've chased since your third year or something!"

"Aha…" James mumbled.

Jeff and Brad high-fived and grinned.

"Go for it!" Jeff said.

"She has actually grown pretty cute," Brad noticed.

"Oi!" James said.

"Sorry. I know it's you girl."

James grinned and shook his head slowly. "Why do you by the way worry about it? It's not any of your concern."

"You're like our little brother. We need to know," Jeff said simple.

"Fine." James said and got up. "I'll head inside. Coming?"

The two men shrugged and followed James inside where they joined Lily, Joey and Sirius in the living room.

As James entered the living room Joey and Sirius were holding hands, but Sirius let go as soon as he saw Jeff and Brad. James sat down in the other couch next to Lily. Jeff and Brad exchanged glances but James sent them a look that told them to shut up and they did.

Half an hour later the fireworks outside went crazy and Sirius quickly kissed Joey, but because of Jeff and Brad only on the cheek. James and Lily grinned at each other and gave each other a hug.

"Happy new year!" Lily said into James's ear.

"1978!" James grinned, hoping it would be a different year.


	21. Leave it to Fate: Tossing a Coin

_A/N: So! I'm really, really sorry to tell you all this, but after this chapter there will only be one more! :( I think it's sad it's nearly come to an end, but I think it's about time too. This has been going on for over a year by now. Thanks to Anita for being a great beta as always._

21 – Leave it to Fate: Tossing a Coin.

"Okay, okay." James nodded. "Heads and I'll do it. Tails, I won't."

Remus looked at him, concern showing in his face. "Don't you think it's a pretty stupid thing to leave this to fate?"

James shook his head. "I've had enough of it. First, I thought of talking to her on New Year's Eve, but it was kind of ruined… By myself. I didn't dare. I've had enough of this game."

Sirius was staring out of the window, absentmindedly. They were halfway to Hogwarts, they had pulled their usual prank on the Slytherins, which they hadn't gotten any response from yet, and now, James was going out of his mind by tossing coins on whether or not talking to Lily, and telling her he still had feelings for her.

"You're not a girl, Prongs," Sirius sighed. "Girls do that kind of stuff."

"And you risk ruining it all with her," Remus muttered.

James shook his head. "You don't get it… I… I have this feeling…"

"Never trust your feelings," Peter said.

"You'll ruin it all," Remus repeated.

Sirius cleared his throat. "I'm just sticking with you being a man. But I do believe Lily would return your words…"

"You'll get hurt," Peter said.

"Prongs," Remus said. "Would you really leave your relationship with Lily to fate? Wouldn't it be better to think about it?"

"I've been thinking enough about it," James mumbled.

Sirius cleared hit throat. "Yes, but-"

"Okay, ENOUGH!" James exclaimed. "I'm tossing this stupid coin now."

He weighted it a few times in his hand and then let it fly through the air. It landed in his palm and he flipped it onto the other hand. He waited a few seconds and then lifted his hand from the top. The other three leaned forward.

"Heads," James muttered.

"You're a girl!" Sirius grinned.

"Don't girls like it when you try to express your feelings?" James asked. He scratched his head.

"Some, I think," Remus said.

Someone knocked. James stuck the coin in his pocket as Lily and Joey opened the door. Joey was inside at once, sitting down between Sirius and Remus. Lily looked at James, raising an eyebrow.

"James, you promised me."

James frowned, leaning back. "I promise so many things... Did you have something specific in mind?"

She placed her hands on her hips. "Do you mind explaining to me why the three Slytherins down the corridor all are wearing pink ballet skirts and leotards?" Her gaze was piercing.

He took a deep breath. "Well, you see, Lily… In fact… Well, in fact, it wasn't us!"

"Yeah, sure." She smiled, looking around. "Had a nice Christmas, all of you?"

The rest of them nodded.

"Fine," Remus said. "You?"

"The same," Lily said. "New Year's was a blast. The boys really know how to party."

"Couldn't agree more," James said.

"I was talking about Jeff and Brad."

James raised an eyebrow. "I think we're pretty party-ish. Don't you think, Padfoot?"

"Don't bother," Remus sighed. "He's busy."

James eyed Joey and Sirius. "Oh, please! Get another compartment!"

Joey placed both of her hands on Sirius' chest and pushed apart. "Sorry, James."

"Yeah, honestly."

Lily chuckled. "Let them have their fun."

"Not when I'm around," James muttered. "Oi, you two!"

"What?" Sirius asked annoyed. "I didn't complain whenever you and Michaela were snogging!"

"No, because you were never around me when she was."

Sirius smirked. "Fine, I'll remember to be like that with your next girlfriend. You both won't get a second of peace, not a single one, okay?" His eyes flickered for a short second to Lily, but her eyes were on Joey and she noticed nothing.

Peter snickered. Remus pursed his lips. "Padfoot…"

"Hey, Lily?" Sirius called.

Lily looked at him. "Yes?"

"Didn't you ever think that James snogging Michaela was annoying?"

James jumped up. "Oi! Enough, Padfoot!"

Sirius looked around James. "Well?"

Lily blushed. "Errm… I really don't know… If James wants to kiss his girlfriend, let him."

"Oh, I knew you'd take his side," Sirius muttered. "Alwa-"

"Enough!" James cut him off. "Padfoot, we get it. If you want to snog Joey, go ahead."

Sirius didn't let him say it twice.

James slowly got up. He motioned for Lily to go outside and he followed right after.

"Sorry about Sirius," he muttered as he closed the door. "His feelings run a little high when you interrupt a snogging session of his. It was my fault, really."

She smiled. "It's okay."

They started walking down the corridor. James took a deep breath. He stuck his hands into his pockets as they started walking in silence. He could feel his heart hammering loud in his chest. Maybe they were right, maybe it was a stupid idea.

"So?" she asked. "Did you plan on saying something? Or are we just going to walk in silence?"

He shrugged. "Not really. I wouldn't know what to say. Besides… Silence is nice every once in a while. If you're comfortable with silence, you're comfortable with the person who's silent with you."

She looked away. "I guess."

"So I'm just letting you talk," he said. "If you're not comfortable with me."

She laughed. "Okay then." She pursed her mouth.

He smiled faintly. He looked upwards, taking another deep breath. The seconds ticked by.

"Hey," she said. She touched his arm, looking at him, "is there something wrong? You seem a little tense."

He couldn't help but admire her. They'd been walking for a very little time, and she already had seen through him. She knew him too well.

He shook his head. "Nothing special. Just the usual."

"Your crazy thoughts?"

"You got me," he said.

She smiled. "So you're not going to tell me?"

"Someday, maybe."

"You're being very cryptic, James," she said.

"Yeah, but now you'll be thinking of what it was that I might or might not have said during the whole day."

"Probably," she muttered, her cheeks going red. "Or you could just spit it out."

"Or you could stop trying to make me tell you."

She smiled, shaking her head slowly. "Will I ever figure you out, James Potter?"

"Probably not. That's the beauty of me."

"I though it was your Quidditch skills."

"That, and the fact that I'm good at making people think of me constantly."

"What would I do without you?" she grinned, rolling her eyes.

"I heard the sarcasm," he muttered.

She laughed. "Really, James."

"Oh, really?" he smirked.

"Really, really."

"Ah, okay. Then it's fine." He smiled.

* * *

Time seemed to tick by even slower now. James didn't intend to back off from his coin-toss made decision, but he had gotten cold feet. Time dragged by and one evening before dinner, it seemed to him that several days had passed even though very few actually had. Sirius seemed to find the whole situation rather funny and wouldn't let go of the 'funny' comments that he shot at every unthinkable and thinkable moment. James blushed every single time, but luckily, neither Lily nor Joey understood what was going on.

"I'm saying we go down for dinner now," James said and got up after one of Sirius's extremely lame remarks.

"Noooo," Lily groaned. "I'm too tiered."

"Prongs will carry you," Sirius smirked. James glared at him.

Lily blushed. "No," she said and waved her hand. "You don't have to James."

James cleared his throat. "I could do it, Lily… If you want me to."

Sirius jumped up, face lit up in a great smile. "Great, we'll race you!"  
"What?!"

"Joey?" Sirius looked at Joey. "Jump up, we'll win over Evans and Prongs."

"Sirius!" Joey protested. "Really?"

"Are you afraid of loosing, Josie?" Lily smirked.

Joey got up. "You did not just call me Josie, did you?"

Lily got up too, her eyes locked with Joey's. "I think I just did."

Joey pulled her lips back into a snarl. "You're going down, Evans."

"Hey, do I get a word in this?" James asked.

"No!" Joey answered, looking at Lily. "Honey?"

Sirius grinned, hurrying to Joey's side. "So, you're accepting the challenge?"

She nodded, and then looked at James. "What about you?"

"Um, Lily?" James asked.

Lily rushed to James' side. "Are we doing this, James?"

"Yup."

"This is getting beyond stupid," Remus muttered.

"He's sad and lonely," Sirius smirked.

He scowled. "Wormtail and I will be the judges. See you down there." He and Peter walked out.

Sirius grabbed Joey's hand. "Potter, Evans." He nodded towards them.

Lily took hold of James upper arm. "Black, Sands."

"May the best couple win…" He sent James a smirk while saying it. James scowled back.

Sirius and Joey walked towards the portrait hole. Lily pulled James down to her level.

"We've got to beat them. They're so arrogant when together." She looked at James with raised eyebrows.

He nodded. "Sure."

Lily dragged James after her out of the portrait hole where Joey and Sirius were already standing, snogging. James cleared his throat and the couple broke apart.

"You can just continue, of course," he said, "but then you'll lose to us."

"Never!" Sirius said. "Joey, jump up, please."

Grinning widely, Joey jumped on Sirius' back. They looked at James and Lily. Shortly, James turned to Lily.

"Lily?"

She nodded, placing both of her hands on his shoulders. Then she jumped up and he held her from her legs.

"Ready?" Sirius grinned. Obviously, he found this very amusing.

James nodded. "You ready… To lose?"

"I hope you are, because all you're going to see is the dust after us."

"Ha!"

"Ready," Joey said.

"Set," Lily muttered.

"GO!" they all yelled.

Sirius and Joey got a better start, but James and Lily were right behind them. Running while carrying Lily wasn't actually as hard as James had thought. She was light and he had trained at Quidditch practice with extra weight on him. They were quickly on Sirius and Joey's side. Sirius speeded up, Joey laughing on his back. James took up the challenge and followed suit.

The presence of Lily made him extra aware of his movements, almost nervous. He knew then that he had to tell her sooner or later. He couldn't do this friendship thing anymore. It didn't matter if Lily returned his feelings or not. It could be worth a shot.

Sirius eyed the opportunity that a well placed suit of armor could bring his team. He ran past it and made Joey's knee bump softly into it. It tipped and fell right at James' feet, who was still a bit absentminded. He spun around to avoid falling. Lily laughed and he slowed down for a second.

She kept laughing. He could feel her warm breath on his neck and her arms around his shoulders. Everything about her seemed to be so clear and it was almost too much. Then, he began running again, Lily's laughter ringing in his ear. He pictured her face at the same time. Angelical as always.

And before he knew it, it'd slipped out of him.

"Lily, I'm still in love with you."

_A/N: Okay, so as you know, this was the second to last chapter. The last chapter is already finished and ready to be posted. I'm dying to do so, but then I'm thinking, "Hey, why not let my readers suffer a little?" Haha, you can always try to make me post faster by leaving some awesome feedback for me. Haha._


	22. Leave it to Fate: Cliché

_A/N. Hey! Okay so I thought I'd better get this up as one: I didn't want to leave you too long. Two: a reader__ somewhere else offered med a virtual pony… I really wanted the pony :P There's another longer A/N in the end you can read if you'd like._

**22 – Leave it to Fate: Cliché**

Her laughter stopped at once along with his running. After a few silent seconds, he let go of her and she slowly slid down from his back, her arms not moving from around his torso. Her head was pressed close to his back as the rest of her body. She'd stopped breathing, and so had he.

The silence was terrible. His heart raced up, beating so loud in his chest he was sure she could hear it. He started breathing again because of the need of air, but she was still silent. Only her arms around him indicated that she was still there.

He was waiting for her reaction, no matter how bad it was. How stupid was he exactly? What kind of an idiot suddenly bursts out such things to a girl? The answer had to be James Potter. No other person could be that stupid.

She took a breath. "What?" she whispered. But of course she had heard.

He slowly turned. He placed both of his hands on her upper arms and looked her into the eyes. "Lily Evans," he said, "I'm still in love with you."

She nodded. "Yeah, thought so too…" And then, before he'd blinked, she had turned around and ran away.

If he hadn't been so surprised, he would have run after her, but she was long gone before he snapped out of his reverie.

He walked alone down to dinner. Lily wasn't there. Sirius laughed at him because he and Joey had won. When he saw Lily was missing, he frowned.

"Where's Lily?"

James shrugged helplessly. "I don't know."

Joey got up. "James, what happened?" She took hold of his arm and guided him onto the bench.

"I…" James mumbled. "It sort of slipped out of me. I didn't even think about it before she stopped laughing."

"What did you say?" Joey asked.

He looked away. "That I am still in love with her."

Joey's eyebrows flew up and she looked at James, trying to make sense of his words. "And she ran?"

"Well, she's not here." James slammed his forehead down against the table, hardly.

"Hey!" Sirius exclaimed. "Stop that."

"I don't get it," Joey mused. "Why would she run?"

"I ask myself the same," James said.

"What exactly did you say?" Remus asked.

James frowned. "Exactly?" They nodded. "Well, I said, 'Lily, I'm still in love with you.' Then we stopped running. We might have said a few words to each other, then I repeated it and she ran away."

"Wow." Sirius whistled. "That's some kind of a flight lady."

James groaned and once more, slammed his head against the table, letting it stay there. "I'm an idiot."

"Won't argue with you there," Peter said. "OUCH! Why did you just stamp my foot, Padfoot?"

Sirius sighed. "James, Prongs… I don't really know what to say…"

"Me neither," Remus muttered.

"I just don't get it," Joey said. "I really, really don't."

"Why is that?" Sirius asked. James lifted his head enough to see them.

She shrugged. "Well, she's crazy about James. Why not just snog him senseless when having the chance?"

"Well, you're wrong," James said, lifting his head completely. "She has absolutely no feelings for me. None whatsoever."

They all looked around. Apparently, none of them had anything to say that could comfort James a little. Depressed, he took a piece of bread, and started to pick it into smaller pieces.

"Life hates me," he muttered.

"I wouldn't say that," Remus said. "You're just unlucky."

He got up. "Well, I'm going to bed."

"Why?" Sirius asked.

"Because I'm depressed," he said. "And If I have to keep looking at couples everywhere around me, I might kill myself. Well, I might just do it after all when I'm upstairs."

"Tough."

"Where are there couples?" Peter asked.

"Everywhere," James muttered. "Just stay here. You don't need to look at me when I hang myself."

Joey got up. "I'm with you, James."

"No, just stay here." His voice was monotone, dead.

"No, James!"

Joey was up after him before he could protest again. They walked in silence for a few minutes.

"If Lily's up at the dorm, tell her I'm sorry, will you?" he asked. "Say I didn't mean for her to know. That I can live with being friends with her."

"James," Joey sighed. "I really don't think it's smart. You need to tell Lily yourself."

"She hates me now."

"We'll see," she said, avoiding the argument.

They parted in the Common Room, James going straight for bed, Joey going to find Lily. James slumped down on his bed, not bothering to put on his PJs and trying to fall asleep. He ignored the others as they came up after dinner, and he didn't answer when Sirius asked him about some stupid prank. At last, they left him alone.

"Shhhh! You'll just wake him up!"

"It was Moony who tripped, not me."

"Shut up both of you!"

"You shut up!"

"Padfoot! We were about to go in there afterwards and then leave again. So _shut up_!"

The voices seemed real, yet James was positive he was sleeping. He just turned to his other side and blocked out the voices. They disappeared again and he was left to himself and his misery.

It felt like only a few minutes had passed when a hand was laid over his mouth. "James?" a voice whispered.

His eyes fluttered a few times, and then focused on a face in the shadows. It was so dark in the dorm that he could only distinguish it as a girl's. He opened his mouth under her hand. He blinked again.

"I'm awake," he croaked and cleared his throat.

"Good," Lily said.

He said nothing. He just stared at her dark figure, slowly becoming aware of her features and the lines of her face. Her nose, her mouth, which was just a thin line, her eyes and brows, the dark hair that fell down on her shoulders.

Slowly, she curled her legs up under her, next to him, her eyes still on him. She wrapped her arm around her knees, biting her lower lip. The silence slowly grew tense.

"So…"

"I'm sorry, Lily," James muttered, pushing himself a bit up. "I shouldn't have said what I did. I don't know what happened to me, but… I can't say I didn't mean it, but I can apologize."

Once again she placed a hand over his mouth. "Silence for the people you feel comfortable around," she reminded him. "I'm here to speak, James. You're to listen. Okay?"

He nodded and she slowly removed her hand again. She pushed herself further on the bed and he moved to make room for her. She looked first into her hands, then out of the small opening in the curtains at the window and at last at him.

"I'm sorry I ran," she said. "I…" She took a deep breath, struggling with the words. "I was taken by surprise, and wasn't sure I was ready to be confronted so drastically… Of course I first realized later that by running I'd have to face it in another much worse way than if I had actually responded a bit better…" She laughed without humor. "But… Well, you see, James, the case is, I like you, I really do. I've fancied you for months and months. But in those months, I was never confronted with it all. Well, I kissed you that one time, but then I lied to yo-"

"You LIED?!" he exclaimed.

She slammed her hand over his mouth yet again. "Shut up, James! Of course I did! Listen, please. Yes, I fancied you, but I avoided confronting my feelings then…" She slowly removed her hand, smiling bitterly. "I thought I could make my feelings for you go away again… I was wrong, of course. I was wrong for several months. I couldn't avoid them forever. But I hadn't hoped it'd happen like this. Suddenly, I was forced to face all these things… I had to look into your eyes and tell you that I fancied you too. But… I couldn't do it. It was too soon somehow and I was too… unprepared." She fell quiet, looking into her hands.

Silence slowly lowered around them. Lily didn't look up again, and kept her head down. James bit his lower lip, trying somehow to make eye contact with her. She didn't move at all.

He cleared his throat. "What about now?" he asked. "Are you still not ready?"

She blinked and then looked at him. Slowly she nodded, "Yes. Yes, I am."

He frowned. "I shouldn't have said it."

"Yes, you should. Stop blaming yourself for something so stupid." She slowly reached forward and took one of his hands in hers. "It was probably for the best too."

"It was so stupid. And to be honest-"

"James…"

"-I don't really know why I couldn't hold it in me. My mind was just totally on you and it just slipped-"

"James…"

"Lily, I know I shouldn't have put you in that situation and it's completely self-inflicted and-"

Lily's hand collided with his cheek and he stopped talking at once. He slowly raised his hand to his cheek, looking astonished at her.

"Now you shut up," she said sternly, "and let me do what I came here to do, okay?!"

"Er-"

That's all James got to say before Lily leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. He responded almost at once. He was about to place his hand around her neck when she suddenly pulled away.

"Auuuuw," he groaned.

She smiled. "I have your attention now?"

"Fully and very intensely, yes."

"Good." She smiled. "James, I'm tired of this."

He frowned. "What?"

"This- this- this game!" She waved her hands to emphasize. "I'm sick of having feelings for you and not putting them in place. I'm sick of running in circles. I'm sick of just being your friend."

"Well," he said and pulled his shoulders up a bit. "We could always go out, you know."

She raised an eyebrow. "Meaning?"

He scratched his neck nervously. "Well… As a couple… You know."

"Hmm," she muttered and looked out of the window. "We could do that, yes."

"And kiss a lot in front of Joey and Sirius."

She placed her arms around his neck. "Well, since you haven't done that with anyone else..."

He smiled. "It's always been you, Lily."

"Always?" she asked, placing a kiss on his neck.

"You're the only one."

"I'm glad to hear that, Potter," she whispered in his ear.

"Well, seeing we're a couple now, you're free to call me James."

"I surely intended to too. So I'm the only one?"

"Yes," he answered truthfully. "Or one and only. Whichever suits you best."

She smiled and snuggled closer to him. "I can live with that. Your one and only love."

He wrapped his arms around her. "Or one love only."

"Sounds like a cliché…"

"Bet it is too."

**The End**

* * *

_So that's it. This has been going on for more than a year now, and one ride it has been. When looking back I see so much I could do better. I have not only grown as a writer, but have learned a lot of other things… I couldn't have done this alone… I want to take a minute to thank __every single one of my readers here on VTM, and the best awesome reviewers (in random order); Jessica, Emily, Louise, Anna, Regitze, Amy and Anita (until she became my new beta). Then I'd like to thank my first beta, Nadia who worked with me until sometime in April, and then one more thanks to Anita because she took over the job even at times where she actually hadn't time. And thanks to the (slightly old) Danish band, S.O.A.P for title song, and The All-American Rejects for composing great writing music! Without you all, this wouldn't have been the same. Thanks!_

- Vicki


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